Vows on them and their Posterity These were the Deans Instructions which the Lord Marquess received with as much Thankfulness as he could express and requited his Adviser with this Complement that he would use no other Counsellor hereafter to pluck him out of his plunges for he had delivered him from Fear and Folly and had Restor'd him both to a light Heart and a safe Conscience To the King they go together forthwith with these Notes of honest Settlement whom they found accompanied in his Chamber with the Prince and in serious Discourse together upon the same perplexities Buckingham craves leave That the Dean might be heard upon those particulars which he had brought in Writing which the King Mark'd with Patience and Pleasure And whatsoever seem'd contentious or doubtful to the King 's piercing Wit the Dean improved it to the greater liking by the Solidity of his Answers Whereupon the King resolv'd to keep close to every Syllable of those Directions Sir Edward Villiars was sent abroad and return'd not till September following Michel and Mompesson received their censure with a Salvo that Mompesson's Lady not guilty of his Crimes should be preserv'd in her Honour And before the Month of March expir'd Thirty seven Monopolies with other sharking Prouleries were decry'd in one Proclamation which return'd a Thousand praises and Ten Thousand good prayers upon the Sovereign Out of this Bud the Deans Advancement very shortly spread out into a blown Flower For the King upon this Tryal of his Wisdom either call'd him to him or call'd for his Judgment in Writing in all that he deliberated to Act or permit in this Session of Parliament in his most private and closest consultations The more he founded his Judgment the deeper it appear'd so that his Worth was Valued at no less than to be taken nearer to be a Counsellor upon all Occasions The Parliament wearied with long sittings and great pains was content against the Feast of Easter to take Relaxation and was Prorogued from the 27 of March to the 18 of April The Marquess had an Eye in it upon the Lord Chancellor to try if time would mitigate the displeasure which in both Houses was strong against him But the leisure of three Weeks multiplied a pile of New Suggestions against him and nothing was presaged more certain than his downfal which came to Ripeness on the third of May. On that day the Patent of his Office with the Great Seal was taken from him which Seal was deliver'd to Four Commissioners the Lord Treasurer Mountagu Duke of Lenox Lord Steward of the King's Houshold William Earl of Pembroke Lord Chamberlain to the King and Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surry with whom it rested till the 10th of July following In the mean time Sir James Leigh Lord Chief Justice of the King's-Bench was Commissioned to be Speaker in the Upper House and Sir Julius Caesar Master of the Rolls was Authorized with certain Judges in equal power with him to hear dispatch and decree all Causes in the Court of Chancery 62 The Competitors for the Office of the Great Seal were many Sir James Leigh before mention'd a Widower and upon Marriage with a Lady of the Buckingham Family Sir Henry Hobart Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Chancellor to the Prince a Step to the Higher Chancellorship and as fit as any man for his Learning and Integrity which of these it was uncertain but one of these was expected And verily a fitter Choice could not be made than out of the pre-eminent Professors of the Common Laws but that all Kings affect to do somewhat which is extraordinary to shew the liberty of their power The Earl of Arundel was thought upon a Master of Reason and of a great Fortune For it was remembred upon the Death of Lord Chancellor Bromly anno 1587 That Queen Elizabeth designed a Peer of the Realm for his Successor Edward Earl of Rutland whose Merit for such a place is favour'd by Mr. Cambden because he was Juris scientiâ omni politiori literaturâ ornatissimus and if his Death much bewailed had not prevented the Great Seal had been born before him But the likeliest to get up and I may say he had his Foot in the Stirrup was Sir Lionel Cranfield Married in the kindred that brought Dignity to their Husbands a man of no vulgar head-piece yet scarce sprinkled with the Latin Tongue He was then Master of the Court of Wards and did speak to the Causes that were brought before him quaintly and evenly There seemed to be no Let to put him in Possession of the great vacant Office but that the Lord Marquess set on by the King was upon enquiry how profitable in a just way it might be to the Dignitary and whether certain Branches of Emolument were natural to it which by the endeavour of no small ones were near to Lopping Sir Lionel besought the Marquess to be sudden and to Advise upon those things with the Dean of Westminster a found man and a ready who did not wont to clap the Shackles of delay upon a business He being spoken to to draw up in Writing what he thought of those Cases return'd an Answer speedily on the Tenth of May with the best advantage he could foresee to the promotion of the Master of the Wards Yet it fell out cross unto him that the Dean woing for another utterly beyond expectation sped for himself The Paper which he sent to the Marquess hath his own Words as they follow My most Noble Lord ALthó the more I Examine my self the more unable I am made to my own Judgment to wade through any part of that great Employment which your Honour vouchsafed to confer with me about yet because I was bred under the place and that I am credibly inform'd my True and Noble Friend the Master of the Wards is willing to accept it and if it be so I hope your Lordship will incline that way I do crave leave to acquaint your Honour by way of prevention with secret underminings which will utterly overthrow all that Office and make it beggerly and contemptible The lawful Revenue of that Office stands thus or not much above at any time In Fines certain 1300 l. per annum or thereabout In Fines Casual 1250 l. or thereabout In greater Writs 140 l. for impost of Wine 100 l. in all 2790. and these are all the true means of that great Office Now I am credibly inform'd that the Lord Treasurer begins to Entitle the King to to the casual Fines and the greater Writs which is a full Moiety of the profits of the place not so much to Enrich the King as to draw Grist to his own Mill and to wind from the Chancellor the donation of the Cursitors places The preventing the Lord Treasurers in these Cases made Queen Elizabeth ever Resolve suddenly upon the disposing of the Great Seal Likewise they are very busie in the House of Commons and I saw a Bill which
Excellent persons Among other passages of his Reviling Throat it was proved against him that he had said that our Bishops were no Bishops but were Lay-men and Usurpers of that Title Floud says the Lord Keeper Since I am no Bishop in your Opinion I will be no Bishop to you I concur with my Lords the like I never did before in your Corporal punishment Secondly in inflicting pecuniary Mulcts upon him that was found Guilty he was almost never heard but to concur with the smallest Sum. I would this had been imitated chiefly by them of the Hierarchy who managed the judgments of that Court after he retir'd I would that favour which was wont never to be denied to any had not been forgotten to take away such a part of an Offenders Estate by Fine that still he might have Honestum Continementum an Honest Provision to live upon according to his Place and Dignity It was never intended to prune away the Loppings and to cut down the Trunk too Nothing could be more harsh to tender Ears and Hearts then such a Torrent of censure as came from Q. Furius against Dolabella 11. Philip. of Tully he had loaded him with all the severity he could think of Dixit tamen si quis eorum qui post se rogati essent graviorem sententiam dixisset in eam se iturum But he may get a fall himself that in the undoing of a Man Gallops to Ride as fast as the Fore-Horse Thirdly the Lord Keeper's Indulgence was not satisfied to set the lowest Fine but labour'd for as much mitigation as could be granted at the end of the Term. The Officers that are yet alive will say as much and make me a true Man that the Fines of the Court were never shorn down so near before And after the Period of his Presidency it is too well known how far the Enhancements were stretch'd But the wringing of the Nose hringeth forth Blood Prov. 30.33 The Lord Treasurer Cranfeild a good Husband for the Entrates of the Exchequer complain'd against him to the King how Delinquents by his Abatements were so slightly punish'd in their Purse that the Fees that came to His Majesties Enrichment would not give the Lords a Dinner once a Week as the Custom had been nay hardly once a Term. Behold now a Man that was Lenissimus sine dispendio Disciplinae as Ausonius says of Gratian as full of Lenity as could be saving the Correction of evil Manners But it will be said he was liberal to spare men out of the King's Stock And no whit less as I will shew it out of his own Sir Francis Inglefeild a prisoner in the Fleet upon a contempt of a Decree in Chancery was much overseen not once nor twice in bitter Words against the Lord Keeper which he vented so rashly that they were certified home Well says the Lord Keeper Let him Bark on but he shall never bite his Chain asunder till he submit to mine Order But there came a Complaint by the Information of Sir J. Bennet that Sir Francis had not spared to say before sufficient Witness That he could prove this Holy Bishop Judge had been Bribed by some that far'd well in their Causes As the Old Adagy goes he might as easily have proved that Hercules was a Coward But this contumely could not be pass'd over There was a necessity to purge it or to fall under it in a public hearing After time given to Sir Francis to make good his Words in Star-Chamber the Lord Keeper withdrawing himself for that day he could prove nothing of Corruption against him no not to the Value of a Doit. So a Large Fine of many thousand pounds was inflicted on Sir Francis to be paid to the King and to his Minister whom he had Slander'd The Lord Keeper in a few days following sent for the woful Gentleman and told him he would refute his soul Aspersions and prove upon him that he scorn'd the Pelf of the World or to exact or make lucre of any man For for his own part he forgave him every peny of his Fine and would crave the same Mercy towards him from the King Sir Francis bless'd himself to find such Mercy from one whom he had so grievously provok'd acknowledg'd the Crime of his Defamation and was received afterward into some Degree of Acquaintance and Friendship Many have been undone by those whom they took to be their Friends But it is a rare chance to be seen as in this instance for a man to be preserv'd by him whom he had made his Enemy Let this suffice to declare that the Star-Chamber by this Lord's Prudence was the Court of Astraea 97. Being to take his Picture from Head to Foot it is pertinent to consider him in the Office of a Privy-Councellor It was his first Honour wherein the King call'd him to serve the Crown being Sworn to sit at that Board Three Weeks before he was entrusted with the Great Seal Many things and the best of his Abilities in that place I believe are un-publishable for the most of that Work is secret and done behind the Curtain He that sits in that Employment had need to have the whole Common-Wealth in his Head So says an exact Senator 2 De Orato Ad Consilum de Repub. dandum caput est nosse Rempublicam Many may spit Sentences upon such great matters and speak little as worthy Doctor Gauden says like sealed Pigeons The less they see the higher they Fly But blessed be his Name that gives all good Gifts he was furnish'd with strong intellectuals to discern into the means that concern the Honour Safety Defence and Profit of the Realm Yet it is not enough to have a piercing Eye unless there be an Heart to affect the public good Tully began well but Pontanus makes up the rest in Extolling the Venetian Government Senatoribus mira in consentiendo integritas atque erga patriam amor incredibilis And his Lordship was as true an Englishman as ever gave Counsel in the Royal Palace Therefore he was more employ'd by his Majesty then all the rest to negotiate with Embassadors being most Circumspect and tender to yield to nothing that was not advantagious to our own common Welfare Neither did the Courts of France and Spain and the States of Holland with whom we Acted most upon Tryal how he sisted their Leagues expect any other from him He had the most sudden Representation of Reason to confirm that which he defended of any Man alive None could abound above him in that Faculty which made his great Master value him at that weight that the thrice Noble Lodwick Duke of Richmond told him in my hearing That the King listned to his Judgment rather than to any Minister of State Which took the oftner because if his Majesty were moody and not inclin'd to his Propositions he would fetch him out of that Sullen with a pleasant Jeâ—t and turn him about with a Trick of Facetiousness I
〈…〉 unsel being present keeping my Intention from my Chancellor himself from whom I never kept any of my weightiest Business Because if I had made him of my Counsel in that purpose he had been blamed for putting the same into my Head which had not been his Duty For it becometh no Subject to give his Prince Advice in such Matters In this Story it appears that the Father-King trod the way to his Son to undergo such an Audacious Journey in the pursuance of his Love Quid non effraeno captus amore Audeat Ovid. Then that he Persisted in his Principles of Secrecy for a generous End that he might not draw his Chief and Best Servants whom he loved most into a Snare of Guiltiness 127. Let Provision be made to the most that could be for the safety of all others yet Sir Ant. W. in his Court and Character of K. James hath one Exception That the King set this Wheel on Running to destroy Buckingham for the hatred which he had long bore him and would not think it ill to loose his Son so Buckingham might be lost also Pag. 149. O Horrid But the best is the Foundation is Rotten For Buckingham as all Men about the King would Testifie was in as high Favour at that time as any Subject was ever with his Sovereign But when Sir A. to make out the Proof he lays it upon Sir H. Yelverton displaced from the Office of Attorney General to the King and committed to the Tower 't was he that assured the Marquess that the King hated him more than any man Living pag. 159. Sir Harry was Unfortunate but too honest a Man to sow Discord between the King and his principal Peer and Attendant Now mark upon what Bottom the Contriver of this Tale doth wind his Forgery Sir W. Balfore at the time of his Lieutenancy of the Tower brought the Marquess at Midnight to Sir H. Yelverton's Chamber being then his close Prisoner Where Sir William heard those Passages and a great deal more between them And by one or other who came to the knowledge of it but this Sir Anthony O Wicked Servant to thy good Master O fowl Bird that defilest the Nest wherein thâ—u wert hatch'd and well fledg'd Thou art catch'd in thine own Lime for thou never couldst have Conserence with Sir W. Balfore or Sir H. Yelverton about such a matter For Learned Yelverton was never Prisoner to Valiant Balfore Sir Allen Apsley was Lieutenant all the time of that worthy man's restraint And Sir W. Balfore was not preferr'd to that Office of great Trust in more than four years after Sir Harry had obtain'd his Liberty when Knaves will turn Fools it is not amiss to be merry with them And I will fit Sir Anthony with a Jest out of Illustrius the Pythagorean p. 23. One Daphidas came to the Pythian Deity to beseech his Oracleship to tell him when he should find a Gelding of his that was gone astray You shall find him very shortly says Apollo's Minister I thank you for your good News says Daphidas but I have neither lost a Horse nor have a Horse to loose So I turn Sir Anthony over to the Committee of Oracles and proceed After the Princes Out Leap the King lingred at New-market till the time was nigh that every day Tidings were expected of his safe Arrival in Spain that he might shew himself to the Lords at White-hall with better Confidence which he did March 30. being the first day that the Lord Keeper spake with the King about his dear Sons Planetary Absence No sooner had he made most humble sign of his Majesties Welcome by Kissing his Hand but the King Laugh'd out this Question to him Whether he thought this Knight-Errant Pilgrimage would be lucky to win the Spanish Lady and to convey her shortly into England Sir says the Lord Keeper If my Lord Marquess will give Honour to Conde Duke Olivares and Remember he is the Favourite of Spain Or if Olivares will shew Honourable Civility to my Lord Marquess Remembring he is a Favourite of England the Woing may be Prosperous But if my Lord Marquess should forget where he is and not stoop to Olivares or if Olivares forgetting what Guest he hath Received with the Prince bear himself haughtily and like a Castilian Grandee to my Lord Marquess the Provocation may be Dangerous to Cross your Majesties good Intentions And I pray God that either one or both of them do not run into that Errour The King drew a Smile at the Answer but bit his Lip at the presage Discourse being Enlarg'd between them the King perceiv'd that his Counsellor had other Fears and that his Brain teemed with Jealousies of very hard Encounters which he knock'd upon softly that his Majesty might discern them and not seem to apprehend them Only thus far the King proceeded to ask him If he had wrote to his Son and to the Lord Marquess clearly and upon what Guard they should stand Yes Sir says he for that purpose I have dispatch'd some Packets Then continue says the King to help me and themin those difficulties with your best Powers and Abilities and serve me faithfully in this motion which like the highest Orbe carries all my Raccolta's my Counsels at the present and my prospects upon the Future with it and I will never part with you The Cause which made His Majesty so solicitous made the Lord Keeper need no Provocation to diligence He was before hand And upon the 25 of February by a Currier that was at Madrid almost as soon as the Prince he wrote two Letters following to his Highness and to the Lord Marquess A Letter to the Prince May it please your Highness 128 ALthough Prayer is all the Service That at this time either I the most obliged or any other the wisest of your Servants can perform unto you yet I Humbly beseech your Higness to pardon true Affections that cannot stay there but will be expressing of it self though peradventure neither wisely nor discreetly The Comick Writer held these two scarce competent Amare sapere And to exclude all shew of discretion I presume to write this First Letter of mine to your Highness without so much as excribing or taking a Copy of the same this opportunity admitting no leisure at all to do the one or the other Your Journey is generally reputed the depth of your danger which in my Fears and Representations your Arrival should be You are in a strange State for ought we know uninvited business being scarce prepared subject to be staid upon many and contrary pretenses made a Plot for all the Wisdom of Spain and Rome for all the contemplations of that State and that Religion to work upon And peradventure the detaining of Your Highness his Person may serve their turn as amply as their Marriage at least wise for this time and the Exploits of the ensuing Summer I write not this to fright you who have Testified to all the
5. to be wasted over into Italy in his Bark Thus he went on with other flatuous Disparagements One Copy of this and no more came to the Leiger Embassador of the Catholick King of which the Lord Keeper had the Use and would never deliver it again but wrote to my Lord Marquess April 20th to bid the Earl of Bristow to take care either to stifle it if it were not divulg'd or to cause it to be called in if it were published Such Scriblers should be informed against in the Ragguaglia's of Pernassus and amerced to pay for the the Loss of our Time 133. Aste the gaudy Days of the Royal Welcome were past over my Lord of Buckingham obliged the Lord Keeper greatly unto him with a Letter Dated March 26 and came about the Declining of April for the Comfort of the Contents which were these My good Lord HOwsoever I wrote so lately unto you that I have not since received any Letter from your Lordship yet because you shall see that I let slip no Opportunity I do it again by this Conveyance and must again tell you the good News of his Highness's being in perfect Health I cannot doubt but many idle and false Rumors will daily be there spread during the Absence of his Highness which I know your Lordship and the wiser sort will easily contemn and believe only that which you shall find avowedly advertised from hence And here let me thus far prevent with your Lordship any sinister Report that shall be made in the main Point which is the Prince's Religion assuring you that he is no way pressed nor shall be perswaded to change it for so is it clearly and freely professed unto him I hope I shall shortly be able to advertise your Lordship of the Arrival of the Dispensation which will be the Conclusion of our Business And thus wishing your Lordship all Honour and Happiness c. The Pearl which came in this Letter is that Satisfaction purchased of God with the Prayers of all devout Men that the Prince should not be inveigled in Conferences or unquieted with Disputes to strip himself of the Wedding-Garment of that incorrupt Faith in Christ which he had professed from a Child for that Wedding sake which he came to conclude How impudently have some Trash-Writers out-faced this Truth as if the Prince had been beset on all sides to make Shipwrack of his Religion in the Gulph of Rome Ar. Wilson of all others is the most forward Accuser and therefore the Falfest Tast him in these Parcels P. 230 that the Earl of Bristow insinuated it with this crafty Essay to his Highness That none of the King 's of England could do great things that were not of that Religion Yet he interfears in that same Page That Gondamar prest the Earl of Bristow not to hinder so pious a Work assuring him that they had Buckingham's Assistance in it Then belike Gondamar was jealous of Bristow that he was contrary to that which he called a pious Work the Prince's Perversion Certainly he knew Bristow as far as a Friend could know a Friend And as many Bow-shots wide is he from my Lord of Buckingham's Sincority in that Action as a Lyar is from Heaven Is not his Lordship's Hand-writing so solemn'y mention'd an uncontroulable Testimony The same Author slanders Conde d'Olivares and makes him utter that which never came from him That if the Prince would devote himself to their Church it would make him â—th way to the Infanta's Afflictions and if he seared the English would rebel he should be assisted with an Army to reduce them The Conâ—e Duke carried no such threatning Fire in one Hand nor at that time any of his Holy Water in the other For he committed nothing to offend his Highness's Ears in that â—ind till his Passions made him forget himself about three Months after Not contented with this he makes the Prince say that which he never thought as that when the Conde Duke propounded That if his Highness would not admit of a sudden Alteration and that publickly yet he would be so indulgent to litten to the Infanta in Matters of Religion when they both came into England Which the Prince promised to do But what says true hearted Spotswood P. 544. That the Prince was stedfast and would not change his Religion for any worldly Respect nor enter into Conference with any Divines for that purpose Utri credetis Is there any Choice which of these two should rather be believed I am careful to praemonish conscientious Readers against Serpentine Pens least their nibling should ranckle A Serpent you know from the beginning was a Lodging for the Devil Gen. 3. and so is a Slanderer The Manual of Romish Exorcisms says Instruct 2. that it is presumed for a sign that he is possest with a Devil Qui linguam extorquet miris modis eandem exerit ingenti oris hiatu I translate that to the Manners of the Mind which is meant there of the Body And let the Living learn the dead Man whom I speak of can take no Warning it is a divelish thing to loll out the Tongue of Contumely These being fore Times to out-face the Truth and willing to listen to Defamations no marvel if some take the Liberty to Lye and have the Confidence to be believed But that Sectaries that have quite overthrown the Church of England a right and pleasant Vineyard of Jesus Christ that these should be the Men who for the most part have challenged the Prince and the chief Ministers that laboured to effect the Spanish Match for being luke-warm at the best and unfastned from the Religion then profest is very audacious The Accused were Innocent and never gave ground to any pernicious Alteration but themselves the Accusers have trodden down that Religion of which in their deep Hypocrisy they would seem to be Champions The Prince and Buckingham were ever Protestants those their Opposites you know not what to term them unless Detestants of the Romish Idolatry As if all were well so they be not Popified though they have departed from the Church in which they were Baptized and a Church I will not say as sound as it was in its Cradle in the Apostles Times but as pure and Orthodox in Doctrine and Government as far as they were maintained to be of Divine Right and Constitution as it was in its Childhood in the time of their Disciples even that next succeeded them And are these the Declamers for Religion and the Temple of the Lord Ex isto ore Religionis verbum excidere an t clabi potest as Tully said of Clodius Orat. pro domo suâ ad Pontif. and so I give them no better Respect at parting 134. But what will be said when one that is greatly affected to our poor demolish'd Church doth concur with those Snarling Sectaries of his own accord That in the flagrant expectation of that Match some for hope of Favour began to Favour the Catholick
had signified his further pleasure and that when the Princessa had been Six Months in England this Favour should be confirmed to her further Content The like was not yielded in the business Agitated with the Duke of Anjoy but a strict Exception was put in Ut nulla Occasio Anglis ad leges constitut as violandas praeberetur It was an ill time for the Embassadors to ask such things when not only seditious Spirits but the best of Protestants who had nothing in them of the peevish and refractory were sick of an ill Digestion of Jealousies It was a hard seeming work to overcome for the Ravens Croak'd and the Doves mourned at it Yet it was a worse time to deny them when the Pledge of our Future Happiness stuck fast in a Foreign Kingdom and nothing could Conduct him home with such Celerity and Safety as some drops of Grace Distilling from the Prerogative Royal to stay the longing of the Pontifician Faction They are beguiled that think Marquess Inoihosa or 〈◊〉 Carlos de Colonna pluck'd us over our Line to get a Wife for the Prince it was to get him home Jam non de Gloriâ sed de Salate pugnandum est Curt. lib. 4. Let his Highness look to it in Spain to come home with a Glorious Bride but all Loyal Hearts look earnestly for him whether single or double was not the Chief Point And the Anxiety of his Majesty was What shall I do for my Son 1 Sam. 10.2 This was the Compass that guided the Lords of the Councel in their condescension to bring their young Master out of Peril though it were with the Ransom of too much Mercy to them who were not the best that deserv'd it But who it was that set the Edge of the Razor upon the Hoane who it was that surpass'd himself in this Negotiation that cut off difficulties smoothly leaving no Raggedness to be seen in the Clest of his distinctions will appear in the ensuing dispatch of the Lord Keepers to the Prince whose goodness will satisfie for the Prolixity May it please your Highness 150. IF I shall touch upon any Service which I may seem to have performed towards Your Higness I humbly beseech your Highness to conceive I do it not to pick Thanks and much less to put any acknowledgment upon your Highness but only to discharge my self of that part of Duty which all the World knoweth I do above all Men in the World owe unto your Highness Before I did imagine that his Majesty would take any Opinion of mine in the Signing and Swearing of this Treaty Sir Fr. Cottington your most worthy Servant had acquainted me with all the dispatch and permitted me to Read the Papers over Upon Saturday last the 12 of July the Council formerly warned to attend his Majesty the next day at Wansted were discharged and some hour after my self commanded to attend Suspecting thereupon I might be questioned to that Effect I sent for your Highness Secretary and heard from him it would be so indeed and that His Majesty was much troubled and perplex'd about his Oaths Presently Town-Reports were Raised of great Opposition among the Lords against this Swearing In so much as the shameless people had made two Orations the one to be of mine for the Oaths and the other of my Lord of Canterbury's against the same which they supposed prevailed with the King and the whole Councel when neither of us had heard or spoken one word in that Theme I spent in a manner all that Night in debating with my self the Streights that your Highness was unto and at the last fell upon this Resolution contained in this Letter which I deliver'd upon Sunday Morning in private to his Majesty with an excuse for my Boldness therein His Majesty accepted thereof very well and Read it over three or four times that day and seemed to me at that time to approve thereof in all Points and put off further Discourse till the Afternoon I was so far emboldned therewith that after Dinner because I found some whispring among the Lords present I stept again to His Majesty and deliver'd him an Opinion that for the Oath of the Lords his Majesty should not leave it to their Disputation but command them to take 〈◊〉 there being no matter of scruple or moment in the same as indeed there is not This his Majesty well approved of and put in practise afterward with good success The Council being met whereof some were there by Reason of their Attendance as my Lord Chamberlain Earl of Carlisle Lord Fenton and Mr. Treasurer others warned as the Duke Lord Treasurer Lord Marshal my self Sir R. Weston and the two Secretaries his Majesty made a Speech unto us full of perplexity because of your Highness's Streits and his own Remorse of Conscience Chiefly he insisted it would be frivolous to be put upon it to move the next Parliament to abrogate the Laws already Establish'd against Recusants which would not be Heard much less Granted and that in point of Conscience and Religion he could not promise that no Laws hereafter should be made against them This his Majesty having utter'd with much Passion and earnestness left us to hear all the Papers Read and having Commanded us very passionately to give him our best Advice retired into his Chamber and left us together for two hours After the End of the Reading many odd and extravagant Propositions were made of Advice to be given to his Majesty how to get your Person home again wherein I durst not say one word finding none of my Opinion unless it were Secretary Calvert nor my self to concur with any of theirs At the last pressed thereunto I said that I conceiv'd upon the Discourse of his Majesty we could not deliver any Advice or Opinion at all For if his Majesty made a Conscience of taking the Oaths and had already Framed unto himself this Conclusion the immoveable Rule in this Case is Quod dubitas ne feceris nor there was no more in Policy or Divinity to be said therein On the other side if His Majesty would otherwise declare himself that he was not moved in Conscience or Religion but only in Honour and Safety to Refuse those Oaths I did hope no Lord in this Company would Advise his Majesty to desert his only Son and to desert him in this manner in the Face of all Christiandom For to pretend an excuse to fetch him home to bâ—lpâ—his Majesty to facilitate these Affairs would never repair his Credit who had subscribed that which his Father would not make good nor was he himself any way able to accomplish Beside that I made it a Question Whether the King of Spain after all this wooing would so easily be deceived in Licensing him to depart At the last his Majesty Returning and calling upon us for our Advice all the Lords Assented to this last Opinion and told his Majesty they durst not Advise him any thing until he express'd himself
more fully in the point of Conscience His Majesty turning to me whom he said he had made for this time his Counsellor and Confessor affirmed his Conscience to stand as he had said before but that he was willing to hear any thing that might move him to alter the same To the which as far as I can remember I spake in this manner SIR 151. IT is not for me upon a sudden to offer my Reasons unto your Majesty to alter a Conclusion of Conscience once Resolved on by your Majesty considering how Guilty I am both of mine own Greenness and Interruptions in these Studies and of your Majesties deep Learning in that part of Divinity especially But because I do conceive that your Majesties doubting in this kind is an absolute Condemnation of the Prince who hath already Subscribed and Presented these Oaths in their Perfection and Formalities to be taken by your Majesty and yet continueth my Soul for his as Zealous a Protestant as any Lives in the World which his Majesty by a short Interruption did with Tears acknowledge I would presume to say somewhat in defence of his Highness in this Case tho I dare not be so bold as to apply or refer it to your Majesty Two things appear unto me considerable in this Case the advancing of the True Religion and the suppressing of the Adverse within this Kingdom The former is a matter directly of Conscience and your Majesty is bound in Conscience to take care of the same to the uttermost of your Power And if your Son had suffered as he hath not one Syllable to be inserted into the Oaths or Articles derogating from the Religion Established he was worthily therein to be deserted and God to be by your Majesty preferred before him The suppressing of the Adverse within this Kingdom is to be consider'd in two degrees First Ita ut non praesit Secondly Ita ut non sit For the first I think his Highness doth make it a matter of Religion and Conscience that Popery do not praeesse prove so predominant in your Kingdoms as that the Religion Establish'd be thereby disgraced or dejected For certain he makes it a Conscience not to Erect Altare contra altare For as for the Leave he promiseth for Strangers to be present at Divine Offices with the Family of the Infanta it is per conniventiam and as his Highness shall approve thereof For the second Degree Ita ut non sit that the Popish Religion should be quite extirpated or the Penal Statutes for the suppressing the same be strictly Executed His Highness dares not make this a matter of Conscience and Religion but a matter of State only If the Prince should make this a matter of Conscience he should not only conclude the French King to be a false Catholic for not suppressing the Protestants and the Estates of the Low-Countries to be false Protestants for not suppressing the Papists at Amsterdam Rotterdam and Utricht especially but should conclude your Sacred Majesty to have often offended against your Conscience an horrible thought from such a Son to such a Father because your Papists are not suppressed and your Penal Statutes have been so often intended and remitted These things you may well do this Point continuing but a matter of State but you may not do it without committing a vash Sin if now you should strein it up to a matter of Conscience and Religion against the Opinion of all moderate Divines and the Practice of most States in Christiandom I conclude therefore that his Highness having admitted nothing in these Oaths or Articles either to the prejudice of the true or the Equalizing or Authorizing of the other Religion but contained himself wholly within the Limits of Penal Statutes and connivences wherein the Estate hath ever Challenged and Usurped a directing Power hath Subscribed no one Paper of all these against his own nor I profess it openly against the Dictamen of my Conscience As soon as I had ended the King spake Largely and Chearfully That in Conscience he was satisfied To which the Lords likewise as generally gave their Applause So the rest of the Counsel were Summon'd against the next Sunday the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Marquess Hamilton the Earl of Worcester the Bishop of Winton Viscount Grandison the Lord Cary the Lord Belfast with others whom I may have forgot And all was dispatch'd before the Embassadors as I need not to relate because Sir Fr. Cottington can best do it And if this Service may conduce to bring your Highness with Speed and Safety to all faithful ones that desire it with their earnest Prayers I shall be the Happiest among Your Highness's Most Humble Servants c. 152. So powerful and perspicuous was the Lord Keeper's Theology that all the Worthies of David his Majesties Secret Counsel concurr'd in the Confirmation Among whom was Bishop Andrews the Torturer of the best Roman Champion with his mighty Learning Another was Archbishop Abbots about whom Mr. Sanderson is most negligently mistaken to write thus Pag. 550. That he was then suspended from his Function and from coming to the Council-Table He sat that Day with the Lords and was the first that subscribed in the Catalogue as himself observes It may be Mr. Sanderson could not reconcile nor I neither how he should sign to the Ratification and undertake a long Letter to King James to disprove it with many Flourishes Cab. p. 13. The same Fountain cannot send forth salt Water and fresh Jam. 3.12 Therefore I deny the Letter I believe justly to have been written by him Such Frauds are committed daily to set Credit to spurious Writings under a borrowed Name A. Gell. picks out a fit Merchant for such Ware Sertorius a brave Commander but a great Impostor Literas Compositas pro veris legebat Lib. 15. Cap. 22. But I will prove my Conjecture strongly First So wise a Man would not shame himself with Inconstancy Act one thing to Day with his Sovereign Lord and pluck it down to Morrow Secondly The Letter crept out of Darkness Thirty Years after the Prince came out of Spain and Twenty Years after the supposed Authors Death A large time to hatch a Fable Thirdly The Lord Keeper vide supra certified the Prince that before the Lords came together to consult about the ease of the Oaths two Speeches were in many Hands rise in London The one for the Negative under the Archbishop's Name The other for the Affirmative under the Lord Keepers Name when no Colloquy had been begun about it Was it not as easie for the same Author or such another to forge a Letter as well as a Speech Fourthly The Archbishop was so stout in the Pulpit at Whitehal as to deplore the Prince's absence and his departure out of the Kingdom The ill relish of that passage I know it by the Papers under my Hand was sent abroad as far as Spain by Sir Edw. Villiers And I dare say the Tydings of that
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. in vit Grach Opus vaecordiae Templum concordiae facit So if such a Monument had been Raised by this King the Temple of Peace and Unity had been with the Malicious the Temple of Sloth and Vanity 'T is a Buff Coat Objection that his Majesty consum'd as much in Embassies to settle differences by accord and did no good as would have maintain'd a Noble War and made him sure of his Demands Nay hold Sirs assurance is only in the Power of God And the Die of VVar says the Proverb casts an uncertain Chance Howsoever was it not more Christian to buy a Childs Portion with Mony then with Blood Gallantry hath made Embassages very chargeable but they devour not like War I shall make some Smile to tell them that Aeschines accus'd Demosthenes for putting the Common-Wealth to the Expence of two Servants to carry his Sumpter when he went Embassador And in the time of C. Gracchus lately spoken of the Romans says Plutarch allowed Nine Obols or Fifteen Pence a day to him that was sent Abroad upon a publick Treaty A Parsimony as bad as our Prodigality But attend to the Opinion of our King Harry the Eighth as I take it from Lord Cherbury's History Pag. 171. The Maintaining of a sure Peace at Home was almost as costly as to make War Abroad Yet he had rather spend his own Treasure that way than to expose his People to Slaughter and to Miseries that are worse than Slaughter 231. But our King James did not weigh which was cheapest or dearest Peace or War but which was more answerable to times of Grace and the Aeconomy of the Gospel For Thrist and Saving he could never be brought to think of them I have heard that he never loved a Servant till he had given him enough for a Livelihood and suspected those that were modest and did not ask as if they loved not him It might rightly be said of his Exchequer what Salmasius notes upon Lampridius Diadumenns Praefectus aerarii comes largitionum vocatur quasi ad nullam aliam rem princeps aerarium haberet quà m ad largiendum The chief Treasurer was called the Count of Largess as if the Prince's Revenue served only for Bounty and Largess But as wise Spotswood says upon Malcolm the Second Necessity is the Companion of immoderate Largition and forceth to unlawful Shifts Therefore it is better for a Prince to proportion Gists to his own Revenews than to the Expectation of publick Supplies Thus far King James may be magnified he spent to please his Mind in gratifying and obliging many not to please his Body His Cloaths were thristy and of better Example than his Courtiers would follow He was temperate in his Diet says Sir An. W. and to be believed because in every thing almost he is an affected Defamer but this he knew well for he was Clerk of the Kitchin and waited at the Table Where as an eye Witness he adds that he was temperate also in his Drinking drinking often but very often not above one or two Spoonfuls at once which Strangers observing and not knowing the small quantity he sip'd carried away an Error with them which grew into a false Fame But I never spake with that Man that saw him overtaken Take him for a Scholar and he had gathered Knowledge to astonishment and was so expert to use it that had he been born in a private Fortune he might have deserved to be a Bishop of the highest Promotion Let the Learnedest of the Nobility the Lord Bacon speak for the Learnedest of Monarchs There hath not been since Christ's Time any King which hath been so Learned in all Literature and Erudition Divine and Humane And let him win and wear that in Auson Paneg. which cannot be denied him Quid aliud es quà m ex omni bonarum artium ingenio collecta perfectio Piety is the Basis of all Vertue and the Basis of Piety in corrupted Nature is rather Repentance than Innocency When this King called to mind in his Retiring-Chamber or in his Bed that he had been that Day overtaken with Passion As he that offends not in Word the same is a per-Man Jam. 3.2 he used to send for Bishop Montague the only Prelate that ever was sworn of his Bed-Chamber or for Dr. Young the Dean of Winton whom he would exhort to Pray with him for the Forgiveness of his Sins He was infinitely given to Prayer says Sir Ant. W. but more out of Fear than Conscience That 's Satan's Gloss upon a good Text. What Fear should move him to Prayer but that which is the beginning of Wisdom Few dye Saints that live Libertines God would not have impowered him to express such good Effects of Religion at his parting out of this Life if he had not been his faithful Servant in his Life before To trumpet these and many more Triumphs of Praise Fame will wake for him now he is faln asleep And the more Ages to come that will study him the more they will renown him I have read it quoted out of Galen that the Surentine Wine is never mellow for the Taste till it be seventy years old and because few will keep it so long the Goodness is little known So the longer the World keeps this King's Memory it will be the sweeter Perhaps it is yet harsh to some malevolous and unthankful 232. It is the Virulency of wrathful Writers that the Dead that should be spared are most traduced by them They cannot bite again when they are bitten as Budaeus said of Portius Lib. 5. de Asse Fol. 169. That Portius would not write against him while he was living Placabiliùs homo peritus actum iri meis cum manibus a sese quà m mecum intelligebar And the miserable Condition of Kings deceased is above others especially if their Posterity be not in a Condition to do them right they are most like to be wounded in their Honour by all those who must be many that have been offended in their own Persons and Suits or in the Injuries as they interpret them of their Friends and Relations Especially it is to be deplored and defied that some are so touchy upon the nicest Points of Religion that they will not spare the Good Name no not of the Lord 's Anointed if he have distasted them with Opposition of Opinions if he not dogmatize with them in all abstruse and intricate Problems of almost unsearchable Truths For which they that sue their Adversaries hotly and as it were go to Law for every Quirk and knotty Point are no better than common Barretters in Divinity This was King James's hard Fortune to be blotted with the Inks of Parsons Schioppius Scribanius furious Papists and as many more of them as would sill Justice-Hall in New-gate by the Precise that were alienated from the Ceremonies and Discipline of the well framed Protestant Church as Wdden Wilson Payton and a Sanhedrim of Scots that contended against the Articles of Perth
Xeno Ath. Resp 'T is pardonable for every man to help himself Nor was it an indirect way no not a jot for there was neither Perjury nor Contradiction found between the first and second Depositions of the Parties And what the Bishop did was by the advice of the best Counsel in England to draw up some few Interrogatories to be put to the four Witnesses only to interpret and not to vary from or to substract or contradict what they had deposed before For the words being ambiguous in themselves might be taken in one sense to Defame in another fence not at all to touch upon the credit of Pregion It was agreed that Pregion offer'd money to A. Tubb and Alice Smith to procure Eliz. Hodgson to lay the base Child upon another man this they had sworn this the Bishop never endeavoured to impeach But an interrogatory is drawn up and offer'd to them whether El. Hodgson was dealt with to lay it upon the right Father which was a just and lawful motion or upon some other whether he had been the Father or no. They both answer That Pregion sollicited her to lay it upon another that was the true Father And this variation is all the Offence that is none at all in that particular And in that right meaning Sir J. Wray Sir J. Bolls and Richardson the Clerk of the Peace did receive it in the Sessions This Practice so little as it is is the grand Objection all beside comes not to so much as a filip on the Forehead For instance one Ward swears that he heard a Servant of the Bishop C. Powel offer Alice Smith Monies to take an Oath of his framing but Alice swears directly it was not so Powel swears he offer'd and paid her Money to bear her Charges as a Witness which is fit and lawful Nec ist a benignitas adimenda est quae liberalitatem magis significat quà m largitionem Cic. pro Murenâ T. Lund takes his Oath That Pregion told him that he never had touch'd El Hodgson but twice Being demanded hereof more strictly in his examination in the Star-chamber he swears That Pregion did not say to him that he touch'd her carnally nor did he know what he meant by touching Is there either substraction or contradiction in this or any more than a plain interpretation Lastly Wetheral had deposed That he was entreated by Pregion not to be at the Sessions He stands to it but adds that he was not bound to be there nor summoned He had deposed That Pregion spake to him to swear to no more than the Court should ask him What harm was there in that Caution Being examined in Star-chamber he swears That Pregion tempted him to nothing by Bribes or Reward but that he told him if he were sworn to tell the whole Truth he would not conceal it Only one Witness George Walker layeth it on the Bishop how Powel and Richard Owen entreated him in the Bishop's Name to speak with Witheral upon these matters which though it include no ill yet Owen and Powel depose They were never employed by the Bishop to deal with G. Walker upon such an Errand So the Bishop is cleared in every Information by sufficient Oaths of such against whose Faith there was no exception How easie a Province had the Defendant's Counsel to crumble these Impeachments into Dust and to blow them into the Eyes of the Impeachers Verba innocenti reperire facilè est Curt. lib. 6. Yet the Oratory of the Court by pre-instructions did turn them into filthy Crimes As Irenaeus says in the beginning of his Work That out of the same Jewels which being handsomly put together make the Image of a Prince being taken asunder you may contrive them into the Shape of a Monster 119. Could it be expected that such Driblets or rather Phantoms of Under-dealing with Witnesses should hold the Court ten days hearing in the long Vacation after Trinity-Term What leisure was taken to bolt out to exaggerate to wrack to distort to make an Elephant of a Fly which I may justly pour forth in the words of Tully for his Client Quintius de fortunis omnibus deturbandus est Potentes diserti nobiles omnes advocandi Adhibenda vis est veritati minae intentantur pericula intenduntur formidines opponuntur But here were worse things which the Oratour had never cause to complain of under the Roman Laws All the Depositions of the main Witnesses for the Bishop were deleted not fairly by a Hearing in open Court where their Lordships might every one have consider'd of it but were spunged out by that Judge in his private Chamber who was the bane of the Cause from the beginning to the end and forsooth because they were impertinent Scandals against Kilvert and others that had deposed for the King Only the Bishop was allowed to put in a cross Bill when it was too late after he was first ruin'd in his Honour Fortunes and Liberty and then lest to seek a Remedy against a Companion not worth a Groat And who was ever used like this Defendant since the Star-chamber sate that when his Cause was so far proceeded as to be heard in three sittings that two new Affidavits should be brought in by Kilvert which struck to the very substance of the Cause to which no Answer could be given because they were new matters quite out of the Books obtruded long after publication yet from thenceforth produced every day which seduced divers of the noble Lords and no doubt many of the Hearers as though they had been Depositions in that Cause which were not so but Materials of another information and in their due time were fully cleared and disproved When was it known before that in every of the ten days that the Cause was in debate a Closet-meeting was held at Greenwich the Lords sent for to it one by one the Proofs there repeated to them and their Votes bespoken Which was no better than when Junius Marius in Tacitus bespake the Emperor Claudius to impart his private Commentaries unto him Per quos nosceret quisque quem accusandum poposcisset And between the full hearing and sentencing the Cause the Lords were well told a Passage That a noble Personage had offered Ten thousand pounds to compound for the Bishop's Peace which is true that the Duke of Richmond did it when he saw how the Game went in the Cabinet Which was the very reason that induced their Lordships to lay such an immense Fine upon a Fault conceiv'd that was never sentenc'd in any Kingdom or State before Yet all this did not suffice but in that morning of the day when the Cause was sentenc'd it was first debated in an inner Chamber so long till many hundreds waited for their coming forth till high noon wherein Agreement was concluded by all Parties before they sate There and then it was that the Archbishop press'd for the degradation of his Brother Bishop and his deportation God knows whither Now
a Justice of Peace and say he takes the Arch-bishop to be meant by Vermin Urchin Hocas Pocas since the Writer did swear the contrary he had evidently made himself the Author of a libellous Exposition But the Bishop pleads he never received such Letters to his remembrance and to make it likely Osbolston swears he never had an Answer of them Powel will not swear but says he found them in a Band-box in the Bishop's Chamber They were like the Cup in Benjamin's Sack no body but Joseph and the Steward that plotted it could tell how it came there Dr. Walker believes but dares not swear that his Lordship receiv'd them yet adds he could not be assured that he understood them for upon his knowledge the Bishop was often to seek to understand Mr. Osbalston 's gibrish and was fain to send to him for his Cypher which in this matter he did not That which the King's Counsel urged was from the Papers that Dr. Walker brought in under his Lords hand which tuned somewhat like to a Replication to the two Letters The Secretary was pelted with many hard words that day from divers Lords for doing that ill Oâ—lice to his Master I have heard Dr. Walker protest deeply so have many besides That he would not have done it for all the world but that he knew it was a main witness of his Lord's Innocency and enough to clear him howsoever the Court did strangely misunderstand it I am bountiful to him if I think he did it for that good end and I will think so because I never saw any immorality or vice in the course of his life And he was right that the Paper is very candid and did deserve from the Archbishop that he should have cast away at least some unprofitable courtesies upon the Bishop for it And the proof was clear even ex parte Reg is in the Court that he refused to consent or agree to make one in a quarrel against the Archbishop but he holds close to his main Plea That the Letters excepted at did never come to his hands If the matter of them be worthy of a censure let it light upon his Steward and his Secretary who confess to have seen those Papers some years before and to know the ironical meaning and did conceal them He appeals also to the Laws of the Land that if such Letters had come to him like Merlin's Rhimes and Rosicrusian bumbast that no Law or Practice directs the Subject to bring such Gryphes and Oracles but plain litteral grammatical Notions of Libels to a Justice of Peace against a known and clearly decipher'd Magistrate That nothing were more ridiculous than to prefer a Complaint for canting and unintelligible Expressions It cannot be but so many wise Lords as sat in Judgment understood this Well might the Bishop say that all flesh had corrupted their way The Court in those days was rolled about with fear and were steered by imperious directions As Syncsius said of Athens in his days Ep. 235. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was nothing but the Hide left to shew what a fair Creature it was in times of Yore Let it not be thought rash to write thus of so noble a Senate How did a Commission of Lords use Queen Ann of Bullen and a greater Commission than that use Mary Queen of Scotland But Mr. Osbalston is sentenc'd out of all his Freehold was doom'd to an opprobrious branding who escap't it by concealing himself from the cruelty of the Tyger only the Earl of Holland voted that he saw no proof to bear a Sentence but cleared both Osbolston and the Bishop so did not the Lord Finch and Sir Fr. Windebank who listed up the Bishop's Fine to Ten thousand pounds Such as these made that Honourable Court insupportable to the Subject odious to the Parliament For whose sake I will change a word in a passage of Tullies Philip. 13. I st is locus si in hâc Curiâ fuerit ipsi Curiae non erit locus Sir J. Brampston Lord Chief Justice led the most Voices for 8000 l. Fine and Damages for receiving Libellous Letters Yet was so judicious not to call the Script sent privately to Dr. Walker a divulging of them as some others did nor did he tax him for not blaming the Indiscretions of Osbolston yet those were the Heads to which the most did refer the Contents of their dislike For all this the Bishop rested in peace of mind and piously wish't his Judges Mercy from God which Prayer I hope was heard for their persons but God was offended at the Court which over-drip't so many with its too far spreading Branches of Arbitrary and Irregular Power If the Excrescencies had been pruned away the rest might have serv'd for wholsome use When the Romans found the Carriage of their Censors to be insolent Mucronem sensorium mustis remediis retuderant Alexâ—ab Alex. lib. 3. c. 23. They blunted the Edge but still kept the Sword in the Magistrates hand But God spared not to dig up this burdensome Tree by the root as Auson in Paneg. Quae mala adimis prospicis ne esse possint rediviva yet it may be the Stump is in the Earth though fetter'd to be kept under with a band of Iron and Brass Dan. 4.15 and may spring again in due season But this guilt among a hundred more upon it is that this Bishop being mulcted in eight thousand pounds for a pretence thinner than a Vapour a Trespass to mean for one Christian to ask forgiveness of it from another and never clap't upon him by the Evidence of any Proof yet not a doit was remitted of that vast Sum. And yet I look upon our Bishop as one that had a better hold in present comfort hope hereafter and glory for ever For it is better by far to suffer than to do an Injury Miserior est qui suscepit in se scelus quà m qui alterius facinus subire cogitur Cic. Philip. 11. 126. Lucilius a Centurion in Tacitus Annal. lib. 1. had a scornful name given him by the Military Dicacity of his own Company Cedo alteram Quta fractâ vite in terga militis alteram rursus alteram poscebat when he had broken a Bastonada of a tough Vine upon a Souldiers shouldiers he call'd for another and another after that Such an indeâ—inent Cruelty was exercised upon the person of this suffering Bishop when one Bill was heard and censur'd Cedo alteram rursus alteram was all the pity that he sound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod lib. 5. Fortune is not content with some mens miseries unless they be all over miserable A new Information is brought on with as much fury as if Jehu had march't with it and that the Desendant might be utterly ignorant of a Conspiracy that was hatching abroad he was shut up close upon colour that he was obstinate and had not answer'd to some Interrogatories as was expected They were Eighty in all To which
and out of those their Treatises wherein especially they handled the Cause for which he Appealed unto them And Thirdly When he had fixed what was prime and principal Truth in any Debate with great Meekness and Sweetness he gave copious Latitude to his Auditors how far they might dissent keeping the Foundation sure without breach of Charity These were the Constellations whose fortunate Aspect did shine upon this Neophytus in the Orb of Cambridge and being under the Influence of such Luminaries a judicious Academian might Prognostic how much he would prosper without a judicious Astrologer But for all that he posted so speedily through the broad Way of the best Tracts of Knowledge yet he found a little leisure to call in as he went at the attaining of some Skill in Musick Instrumental and Vocal not as a Siren to catch him but as a Delight to solace him Nay though he set his Face to the end of a great Journey yet in transiâ—â— he took Acquaintance of the French Tongue to make himself able to read the choice Pieces of that acute Nation which flow'd in easily and apace into him having the Pipes of the Latin Tongue ready cast to convey it What shall we say to him that took in hand such a long Sorites of Sciences and Tongues together But that such Blood and Spirits did boil in his Veins as Tully felt when he spake so high Mihi satis est si omnia consequi possim Nothing was enough till he got all 14. The Gamester was the freer to throw at all because he was like to draw a good Stake Preferment already holding its Hand half open For â—fâ—câ—bi 2º his Patron and tenderly-loving Kinsman Dr. Vaughan was Removed from the Bishoprick of Chester to the See of London The young Eaglets are quickly taken up upon the Wings of the old one But the good Bishop within three Years after he had ascended to that Dignity ended his days greatly lamented of all and lived not till his young Cousin was adult for Promotion This only was much to his Benefit that every Year the Bishop sent for him to spend a few Weeks in his Palace of London a great help to his Breeding to let him see the course of Church-Government managed by the Piety and Wisdom of so grave a Prelate who had much of a Gentleman much of a Scholar and most of a Christian During his abode in the Reverend Bishop's Palace he had the opportunity to tender his Duty to that noble-minded and ancient Baron John Lord Lumley who received him with equal Courtesie and Bounty as his Kinsman That Lord having given his Sister in Marriage to Mr. Humfry Llyd of Nor. h. Wales a most industrious Antiquary as appears in Ortelius and Adjutant to Mr. Cambden in his great Work This Lord Lumley did pursue Recondite Learning as much as any of his Honourable Rank in those Times and was owner of a most precious Library the Search and Collection of Mr. Humsry Llyd Out of this Magazine that great Peer bestowed many excellent Pieces printed and Manuscript upon Mr. Williams for Alliance sake a Treasure above all Presents most welcom to him Yet the noble-hearted Lord a free Mccaenas gave with both hands and never sent his young Kinsman away from him without a Donative of ten Pieces The first Gift of Books he kept better then Gold for the Gold went from him again as magnificently as if he had been no less then the Lord Lumley himself But that he had received those noble Favours I heard him remember with great and grateful Expressions in the Chancel of the Parish-Church of Cheam near to Nâ—nâ—â—câ— in Surrey whereof my self have been Rector now above 30 Years coming on a day to view the Burial-place of the Lord Lumley where his Body lies under a comely Monument 15. It fell out luckily to Mr. Williams to keep him from incurring great Debts that he had such an Ophir or Golden Trade to drive with the Lord Lumley's Puâ—se who supplied him with a Bounty that grudg'd him nothing till the Year 1â—â—9 for then that aged Baron died Four Years before the loss of that dear Friend An. 1605 he took his Degree of Master of Arts and he Feasted his Friends at the Commencement as if it had been his Wedding having more in Cash at command by the full Presents of many Benefactors then is usual with such young Graduates His Merits being known brought him in a great Revenue long before he had a certain Livelihood A Master of Arts is a Title of honest Provocation rightly considered Nomina insignia onerosa sunt says the Emperor Alexander Mammaens But they are scarce so many as a few that are warm'd with the remembrance of that Honour which the Regent-House conferr'd upon them worthy to be taxed in parodie with that Increpation Heb. 5.12 Cum deberetis Magistri esse propter tempus rursum indigetis ut vos doceamini When for the time ye eught to be Masters you have need one teach you again Whose Reproach hath this and no other use that they are a pitiful Foil to their Betters I am sure I explain a Man who added as much Grace to the Name as any his Ancestors of those that came after he that was the best was but second in the Order Every day borrowing much of the Night advanced his Knowledge He hired himself to labour under all Arts and sorts of Learning The more he toil'd the more he perceiv'd that nothing in this Earth had such Amplitude as the extent of Sciences He saw it was a Prospect which had no Horizon a Man can never say he sees the utmost bound of the Coast Therefore he was continually drawing his Bow because he was sure he could never shoot home No Man fishes to get all the Fish in the Sea yet since the Sea contains so much he is slothful that labours but for a little Our Student began now to fall close to the deep and spacious Studies of Divinity I deliver from his own mouth what he would relate sometimes in his riper Years That he began to read all the Scriptures with the choicest and most literal and as he found it fit with the briefest Commentators so that all his Superstructure might knit close to that Foundation He compared the common places of P. Martyr Chemnitius and Musculus Calvin and Zanchie being in at all with the Sacred Text and found that Harmony in them all with the Oracles of God's Word that he perceived he might with a good Conscience as he would answer it to Christ Jesus defend the Integrity of the Reformed Religion taking it not upon Trust but upon Judgment and Examination But an Artist knoweth not what he hath got by all his Diligence till he useth it neither can a Scholar understand what Tast is in the Waters of his own 〈◊〉 till he draws some quantity out Therefore he disclosed himself both in his own Terms and for his Friends in common Places and
their Followers Dr. Richardson the King's Professor in Divinity to manage the chief Place in the Chair Dr. Davenant to moderate in the Theological Disputation and Mr. Collins to answer upon three Questions The next Care was for Opponents And Mr. Williams was so high in the Opinion of all the Learned Doctors that he was thought upon in his absence as a most Select Antagonist for this Conflict and Letters of Entreaty were directed to him to come and fulfil that part which upon Assurance of his Sufficiency was imposed on him There was no leisure for a Demur the straitness of Time said either do it or deny it But he submitted yet humbly protesting against himself from one point of Incapacity that though he had compleat time from the Midsummer elapsed for the Degree of Batchelor of Divinity yet he had not taken it And without that Title it was not usual or decent to shew himself in the luster of such an Auditory Well says Dr. Richardson you speak Reason yet we will not want you at this needful time for I will teach you how to fill up that empty Circumstance It will be a fortnight yet before our Royal Guests the Princes will come to us Prefer your two Questions Pro Gradu this night or to morrow to me I know your readiness that you need take no more time In five days after I will meet you in the Schools Incontinently your Degree shall be confer'd upon you Pro More or by special Grace He obey'd And the Theses which upon allowance of such short time he maintain'd were these 1. Peccata semel remissa 〈◊〉 redeunt 2. Qui sacres ordines susecperunt samulari possunt magnatious ut fructus Ecclestasticos percipiant Dr. Richardion who received from him these Tâ—â—ses as it were the Chartel of Challenge met him in the Schools He was a profound Divine as famous in the Pulpit as in the Chair which is not usual a great Linguist noted for a kind of Omnisciency in Church Antiquities of pure Language yet used not his Pen to Compose his Lectures but brought his Memory with him and dictated his Mind with great Authority We that frequented at his Polemical Exercises observ'd That if the Respondent that stood before him were not a lusty Game-Cock but of a Craven kind he would shake him a little but never cast him on his back But if he were one of the right Brood that would strike Spur for Spur he would be sure to make him feel the weight of a Professor's Learning before they parted Therefore he did not dally with Mr. Williams at this time but laid at him with all his Puissance Nothing could be more delightful for two long hours and better to us that were the Lookers on In ventilating the first Question we judged that the Doctor of the Chair had twice duck'd the Respondent under Water but he quickly appeared again at the top Once was upon the Objection That Original Sin is remuted in Baptism and yet some Baptized become Reprobates and are for ever Tormented Even so says the Answerer for their Actual Rebellions but not upon the score of Original which was wiped out The second Shock was upon that Scripture Matth. 18.32 where the Lord tells the Unmerciful Servant that He had forgiven to him the Debt which he desired but since he had no compassion of his Fellow he should be kept in Prison till he had paid all which was due Though I might decline the Instance says the Respondent because it is Parabolical yet to encounter the Text more directly I say that the Debt was not cancell'd to that rigid and hard Servant for if he had his Apâ—cha or Quietance to speak after the manner of Men he were free from all insequent Demands But I forgave thee in that Verse is as much as I forbear thee I did not pross thee or exact upon thee Though the Tally was not struck yet no Suit was commenc'd and a Temporary Forbearance is a kind of Forgiveness The Professor was satisfied and drove his Wedge no further into that Knot Upon the second Question I remember the grave Doctor gave the Onset somewhat frowningly But the Pith of his Obligation was That the Vocation to Sacred Orders Ministerium est non mercatura Piscatores sumus hominum non venatores munerum that is Our holy Profession is a Ministry not a Merchandise that we are made Fishers of Men and not of Livings The Retorsion to this had Strength and Sweetness like Iron that is gilded Alius est finis artis alius artificis The end of Theology is to gain Souls the end of the Theologue subordinate to the first and Architectonical end is for an honest Maintenance and Sustentation As the end of Art Medicinal is to cure a Sick Man but the end of the Physician is to live well upon his Profession This agrees with the mind of Seneca lib. 3. De Benef. That the end of Phidias his Art was to carve a Statue with likeness concinnity and due proportion Finis artificis fecisse cum sructu The Artificer's end was to take Money for his Work A Distinction that cuts by an even Thread which with all that was deliver'd beside received great Congratulation from the Professor and Auditors 33. From henceforth he was a Licemiate as the Transmarines call it as we a Batchelor in Divinity A Relation to beautifie his Profession or rather a mere Scabbard to put in the sharp-edg'd Weapon of his Learning out of which he drew it forth upon a fair Quarrel which was decided before a glorious Auditory Mar. 3. 1612. That was the day wherein the Princes with the Attendance of mighty Peers and one Bishop Dr. James Montagu Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells vouchsafed to give a most Gracious Hearing to a public Disputation held between some of our chief Divines The Place was filled with the most Judicious of this whole Island and some of the Attendants of the Palsgrave so Learned that One might stand for many Plato alone for Ten Thousand One Abraham Scultetus a Worthy greatly look'd upon was able to awake the Diligence of them that had been Drowsie But they that were set forth for this Encounter had Metal enough and needed no Provocation but their own Virtue Dr. Richardson Agmen agens Lausus magnique ipse agminis instar began first with his grave Nestorean Eloquence and having saluted Prince Charles the great expectation of our future Happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as G. Nyssen calls Isaac the Branch of Succession and having blessed his Serenity the Prince Elector the Bridegroom with Solemn Votes and Wishes to be added to his Hymeneal Joys then he called forth the Son of his right hand Mr. Samuel Collins created Doctor at this Commencement to stand in the gap and to maintain the Truth in three Theses against all Assailants He was a firm Bank of Earth able to receive the Shot of the greatest Artillery His Works in print against
Eudaemon and Fitz-Herbert Sons of Anak among the Jesuits do noise him far and wide But they that heard him speak would most admire him No Flood can be compared to the Spring-Tide of his Language and Eloquence but the milky River of Nilus with his seven Mouths all at one disemboguing into the Sea O how voluble how quick how facetious he was What a Vertumnus when he pleas'd to Argue on the right side and on the contrary These Things will be living in the memory of the longest Survivor that ever heard him In this Trial wherein he stood now to be judged by so many Attic and Exquisite Wits he striv'd to exceed himself and shew'd his Cunning marvelously that he could invalidate every Argument brought against him with variety of Answers It was well for all sides that the best Divine in my Judgment that ever was in that place Dr. Davenant held the Rains of the Disputation he kept him within the even Boundals of the Cause he charm'd him with the Caducaean Wand of Dialectical Prudence he order'd him to give just Weight and no more Horat. l. 1. Od. 3. Quo non Arbiter Adriae major tollere seu ponere vult freta Such an Arbiter as he was now such he was and no less year by year in all Comitial Disputations wherein whosoever did well yet conslantly he had the greatest Acclamation To the close of all this Exercise I come The grave elder Opponents having had their courses Mr. Williams a new admitted Batchelor of Divinity came to his Turn last of all Presently there was a Smile in the Face of every one that knew them both and a prejudging that between these two there would be a Fray indeed Both jealous of their Credit both great Masters of Wit and as much was expected from the one as from the other So they fell to it with all quickness and pertinency yet thank the Moderator with all candor like Fabius and Marcellus the one was the Buckler the other the Sword of that Learned Exercise No Greyhound did ever give a Hare more Turns upon Newmarket Heath then the Replier with his Subtleties gave to the Respondent A Subject fit for the Verse of Mr. Abraham Hartwel in his Regina Literata as he extols Dr. Pern's Arguments made before Queen Elizabeth Quis sulmine tanto tela jacet tanto fulmine nemo jacet But when they had both done their best with equal Prowess the Marshal of the Field Dr. Davenant cast down his Warder between them and parted them A Fable comes into my Memory That Vulcan to despite Diana made a Dog which should catch every thing he hunted called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Diana to despite Vulcan made a Fox which could never be catch'd in Hunting called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And all the Gods and Goddesses could never reconcile the Contradiction till upon one Chase both the Dog and the Fox ran themselves to death which Ovid compriseth in a little Lib. 3. Metamor Scilicet invictos ambo certamine cursus Esse Deus Voluit The Moral in a great part may suit well with these two unvanquish'd Disputants The Bishop of Bath and Wells Dr. Montagu gave great demonstration of Affection to Mr. Williams ever after his Negotiation in this Act. As Velleius says Nulla festinatio hujus viri mentionem debet transgredi That Bishop was a Reverend and Learned Father in the Church a most loving Son to his Mother the University he was full of good Works as Bath and Farnham and Winchester-house in Southwark could testifie if these impious and overthrowing Times had let them stand and many more recited by Bishop Godwin in his Catalogue of Bishops This was the good Man who from henceforth was the truest Friend to Mr. Williams of all that did wear a Rochet to his Last Day who after these two sublime Performances of the Responsion for Batchelorship of Divinity and Opponent's Place in the great-Great-Day before the most Illustrious Princes retired to his Home for so I must now call the Lord Chancellor's Family 34. He was now in the House of Obed-Edom where every thing prosper'd and all that pertain'd to him The Chaplain understood the Soil on which he had set his Foot that it was rich and fertile able with good Tendance to yield a Crop after the largest Dimensions of his Desires To be well then was but to be well now His fore-casting Mind thought of the future how to stock himself with Experience with Wisdom with Friends in greatest Grace with other Viaticum for the longest Journey of his ensuing Life Let me use the Phrase correctedly He lived not for half a Time but for a Time and Times He never liv'd Ex tempore but upon premeditation to day what to do long after As a wise Man says Non disponet singula nisi cui jam vitae summa propesita est Sen. Ep. 71. Particular Actions will be kept in method when Providence hath affected the Sum and End of them As at Chess the Idea of the Game must be in the Head of the Gamester then the Remove of every Chess-man promotes it The Chaplain began his part as any wise Man would to demerit his Lord with all due Offices and prudent bearing and he got it faster then he fought it He pleas'd him with his Sermons He took him mainly with his sharp and solid Answers to such Questions as were cast forth at Table to prove his Learning His Fashion and Garb to the Ladies of the Family who were of great Blood and many was more Courtly a great deal then was expected from a Scholar He receiv'd Strangers with courtesie and labour'd for their satisfaction He Interposed gravely as became a Divine against the Disorders of the lowest Servants And unto all these plausible Practises the Back-bone was continual diligence Other Things that commended him no less or perhaps more were these My Lord Elsmore was at that time Chancellor of the University of Oxford whose References and Petitions when they were brought before that great Judge the Chaplain newly come from the Sister-Corporation understood them more suddenly then all that were about his Master and was cunning at the first Opening to propound how to bring them into the just Academical way to be determin'd And the Opinion which he gave did so constantly Arbitrate all those Complaints that the truly admired Bishop of London Dr. King would sometimes call him pleasantly The Chancellor of Oxford The second Part of his Industry to make his Acceptance so gracious was That he was stored with Friends in the Courts of the King and Prince from whence he gather'd Intelligence fit for the Hearing of his Master Not blind Rumours or the frothy Talk of the Lobbies but weighty Passages carried in a Mist before they came to Light Clouds that at the first rising were scarce so big as an hand yet portending mighty Tempests when they fell For he had a Palate to taste their Court-Wine when it was
working in the Must Every day this Sufficiency grew with him more and more till he became the only Jewel which the Lord Chancellor hung in his Ear. Yet in four months after he fell to this Trade his best Customer fail'd him the Court of the Prince being Dissolv'd by the Death of Prince Henry Nov. 6. 1612. with whom so much Light was extinguish'd that a thick Darkness next to that of Hell is upon our Land at this day O matchless Worthy live in everlasting Fame with the Elogy given by that quaint Historian Velleius to Pub. Rutilius Non seculi sui sed omnis aevi optimus The third Step of Felicity upon which he clim'd Eis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is Athanasius his Metaphor into the Bosom of his Master's Soul was That he had pick'd up in a short space some Gleanings in his own modest words in the knowledge of the Common Laws of the Realm but indeed full Sheaves if his Acquaintance may be believ'd He remitted not the Studies of his own Science and Profession but having read the Tenures the Doctor and Student and somewhat else like unto them at hours of Relaxation he furnish'd himself with no little quantity of that Learning by Discourse and Conference and enquiring after some cases how they sped in the Courts of Justice When he was at a non-plus he respited that Difficulty till he met with Sir John Walker afterward Lord Chief Baron whose Judgment was most agreeable to his Genius This was his Practise not now but all along to gather up more at the Interspaces of Leisure then others do at their Study Which was the Contrivance of Scipio Aemilianus the Sir Philip Sidney of the Old Romans Neque quisquam Scipione elegantius intervalla negotiorum otio dispunxit says the Character of the Author lately cited 35. Here I will provide a little to set my Shoulder against the Justle of an Objection Perhaps some will say What did the Study of our Laws belong to him The Dainties of the Scriptures were his daily Diet prescrib'd him by his Calling Why did he seed upon those coarse Coleworts And who could spare any of the Time of this short Life when the Work of a Divine is more then this Life can dispatch so that the Remainder must be learnt in Life Eternal Somewhat to that purpose is pithily express'd by Seneca Quae dementia est in tantâ temporis egestate supervacua discere Ep. 48. And what say you to the Judgment of Pope Honorius the Third who sat an 1216. who forbad all Clerks to study Physick or the Pandects of the Laws Or to the Emperor Justin the elder who lived 600 years before Honorius c. leg 41. Opprobrium est si Ecclesiastici peritos se velint ostendere legum forensium I say those Laws must be weighed with Grains of Temper and Charity Whom Nature hath made docile it is injurious to prohibit him from learning any thing that is docible Marie he that forsakes his holy Calling and lists himself in another Warfare that gives himself up wholly to scrape a Livelihood from curing Diseases or fogging in Secular Causes is a Renegado and must be brought back again to his Colours with the Infamy of a Fugitive But far is he from being guilty of this Fault who serves Christ Jesus faithfully in the Labour of the Gospel and can do it the better by poizing Humane Laws and trying how consonant they are to God's Justice and by searching the Virtue of Plants and other Creatures can find out how wonderful the Almighty is in all his Works The Collation between Moses and the Imperial Laws which Paulus Modestinus and others of his Robe have made why may not a Minister peruse it with as much profit as an Advocate It were a Tyranny more then barbarous to confine a Wit that hath a Plummet to found the depth of every Well that the Arts have digged or to clip his Wings that he may not fly into every Bush as freely as the Fowls of the Air. Padre Paulo the Frier the brightest Star in the Hemisphere of Italy was second to none in Divinity while he liv'd equal with the best Doctors in Rome or Siena in explicating Canon or Civil Laws and above all the Practisers of Padua or in the World in understanding the Aesculapian Art says Fulgentius Albericus Gentilis spoke it to do Honour to the Industry of Dr. Reynolds of Corpus-Christi College that he thought that great 〈◊〉 had read as much in the Civil Law as himself Wherein then consists the difference Why might not Mr. Williams examine the Cases Reports and Maxims of our Municipal Laws to be expert in them Both being egg'd on into it by the Happiness of his Attendance in the Pretorian Court where he might learn much and labour little for it and making it the Recreation not the Intermission of his proper Studies Therefore out of Charity give him leave to gather Stubble where he would since he fulfil'd his Task of Brick Exod. 5.18 The Lord Chancellor did highly countenance him in it and was so taken with his Pregnancy that at his leisure-times both for his own solace and his Chaplain's furtherance he would impart to him the Narration of some famous Causes that had been debated in Chancery or Star-Chamber What could not such a Master teach What could not such a Scholar learn Socrates says in Plato of Alcibiades that he Gloried in nothing so much as that he was Ward to Pericles and brought up under him Neither had this Chaplain a more graceful Ornament to shew in the Eyes of the World then that he was Disciple to the Lord Egerton That great Senator the most judicious Judge and Counsellor of his Age would not have disparaged himself to give a young Divine so great a Place in his Affections but that he had founded him and discover'd him to be a person of rare Abilities By this favour to which he had attained though he was not in the place of one of the Secretaries yet he became to be like a Master of Requests especially in weightier Petitions he could prevail more then any other Minister which was not to be presisted by the other Officers He had a Mind full of worth and full of warmth and no place became him so well as the foremost as Pliny says of Cocks lib. 10. c. 21. Imperitant suo generi regnum in quâcunque sunt domo exercent None of his Fellows had cause to repent that he rode upon the Fore-Horse For he was courteous and ready to mediate in any Cause and as bountiful as might be wish'd for he left all Fees and Veils of Profit to those to whom they did belong By this in a little while they that would have kept him back at first did their utmost to put him forward which did not need For the Lookers on did mark that his Lord did not only use him in his most principal Employments but delighted to confer with him
a Corruption in Opinion Sir says the Doctor I obey Your Commands with all my heart and with belief of some Success But in case upon the first or second Conference I bring the young Madam to some Access towards the Church of England without a total Recess from the Church of Rome will Your Majeshy discomsit a good Beginning and stay the Marriage whose Consummation is every day desired because the Party is not brought to the perfection of an absolute Convert To which the King answered I know that commonly Grace proceeds by degrees in conception and building up its Features as well as Nature but though you walk slow walk sure I cannot abide to be cozen'd with a Church-Papist So the Doctor received his Commission chearfully from His Majesty the rather because though he cunningly concealed how far he had entred yet he had assayed before to bring the Lady Katherine into a good liking of our Church with many strong and plausible Arguments and found her Tractable and Attentive She easily perceived that Conjugal Love would be firmest and sweetest when Man and Wife served God with one Heart and in one way and were like the two Trumpets of Silver made of an whole Piece Num. 10.12 And quickly she was confirmed by divers and solid Representations to confess that our Cathechism was a plain Model of Saving Truth and the Form of Matrimony in our Liturgy pleased her abundantly being as pious and forcible as any Church could make to bind up a sanctified and indissoluble Union And after some Prayers made to God for his secret Breathings into her such easie Demonstrations were spread before her that she confess'd our Ministers were fit Dispensers of the Ordinances of God and all Gospel-Blessings from Christ Jesus So the second Obstruction was master'd by the good Spirit of God and this Doctor 's Industry The Remotion of two such Impediments is not commonly accompass'd by one Head-piece Sometimes it is seen as Macrobius says yet very seldom Ut idem pectus agendi disputandi facultate sublime sit Lib. 2. de Som-Scrip c. 17. Now all things being made smooth for Love and Concord on the 16th day of May 1620. the Nuptials were celebrated between the Lord Marquess and his Bride the Lady Katherine Manners at Lumly-House on Tower-Hill where the Earl of Rutland lay Dr. Williams joyned them together with the Office of our Liturgy all Things being transacted more like to Privacy then Solemnity to avoid the Envy of Pomp and Magnificence I have been no larger then there was cause in this Report for the Negotiation in this Marriage said the Negotiator often unto me was the last Key-Stone that made the Arch in his Preferment 52. It behoved him therefore to spare no Pains nor Study to season the new Marchioness with such a measure of Knowledge as might keep her found in the Integrity of Truth He needed not a Remembrancer to keep his Diligence waking Yet the King was so intent that the Lady should become an upright and sincere Protestant that he proposed to his Chaplain now her Ghostly Father to draw up a pretty Manual of the Elements of the Orthodox Religion with which she might every day consult in her Closet-Retirements for her better confirmation A Book was Compiled accordingly but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put forth and not put forth Twenty Copies were printed and no more and without the Author's Name in a Notion common to many By an old Prebendary of the Church of Lincoln The Copies were sent to the Lord Marquess and being no more are no more to be found for I have searched for one but with lost Labour I can truly say I have seen one and read it about 30 Years since which being in a negligent Custody is miscarried It contents me better that I have a written Copy out of which it was printed by which the Author could set it in order for the Press surer then I can now If I should miss to digest the Expunctions Interlinings and Marginal References as they were intended I should make the Work differ from it self though quite against my will But because it is a Golden Medal and sit to be worn like an Amulet against Seducers when this Web is spun and woven which I have in hand I will try my best Skill though a weak Aristarchus to fashion it into Native Contexture And if I can truly affirm it to be the very Mantle which fell from Elijah it shall be forth-coming in a Wardrode in the end of the Book If I fail in that I do not despair let this Letter sent with the 20 Copies to the Lord Marquess discover what sappy Kernels were in that Pomegranate My most Noble Lord MY most humble Duty and all due Respects remembred I have at the last according to His Majesties Intimation and your Lordship's made up for my Ladies private Use a little Stock as it were in Divinity and divided the same into three small Treatises The first to furnish her how to speak unto God by Invocation The second how to speak unto her self by Meditation And the third how to speak unto those Romanists that shall oppose her by way of Answer and Satisfaction Prayers are the most necessary for the obtaining Principles for the augmenting and Resolutions in these days for the defending of her Faith and Profession I held these three in some sort and more I held not to have been necessary The Prayers I have Translated from ancient Writers that her Ladyship may see we have not coyned a new Worship or Service of God Of the rest I received my best Grounds from His Majesty and such as I protest faithfully I never could read the like in any Author for mine own satisfaction If I be out in my Descant upon them I hope your Lordship will the rather pardon it because the Book is but private whereof 20 Copies only are imprinted and as many of them to be suppressed as your Honour shall not command and use I make bold to send these Books to your Lordship because I hope they will be more welcom and acceptable to both the great Ladies coming immediately from your Honour I humbly thank your Honour for affording me this occasion to do your Lordship any little Service who am in all affectionate Prayers and best Devotion Your Honour 's true Creature and Beadsman JOHN WILLIAMS From Your College at Westminster this 28th of November 1620. 53. I perceive by the Date of this Letter that the Book was printed six months after it was bespoken which could not be help'd because the Author was taken up almost all that Summer in making a progress to survey the Lands of the College of Westminster whereof he was become Dean by the Lord Marquess's Favour and Installed July 12. 1620. Dr. Tolson who preceded a man of singular Piety Eloquence and Humility in the March before had the Approbation of the King and the Congratulation of good Men for the Bishoprick
till they had made their passionate Complaints That Popery was suffered to increase without Care and Controlement His Majesty knowing it to be a scandalous Untruth which blemished him in the good Opinion of his People and the contrary so well known at home and abroad that himself with his own Pen had cut the Head of that Superstition to the admiration of all the World Yet the Clamour being more stoutly than wisely maintain'd by the Undertakers it reached to this prejudice or rather mischief that the King bethought him that all their Grievances and they were many were as groundless as this and that the Proponents were not to be consulted with for the Publick Weal and so Dissolv'd them Generally the Grave and Moderate Gentry throughout the Realm dislike those hot Distempers which wrought so high in the House of Commons Yet were not satisfied with their abrupt Recess Such Physick is too Violent for the Body and naught for the Head For the Unruly shall less offend in their House than when they go home and exaggerate Reports of Misgovernment among their Neighbours And that Monarch sooths himself in Error that thinks he will close up the Wound of such a Breach with a Lip-Salve of a Protestation or by some Declaration that he will Redress Grievances by himself and by his Judges without troubling his Lord and Commons For it is ingrafted into the people not to account any thing for Reformation unless the Workmen whom themselves have chosen do mend the decays of the great Building 58 It is much that a King of great Experience and so full a Soul did discern this no sooner at last he came to it And after seven years Pause he was desirous to try the good Temper of another Parliament It was high time for many Respects Let not two among many be forgotten First he lacked Mony and being so profuse in Gifts he had lacked sooner it the Custom-House had not supported the Exchequer In ten years he had not he Received one Subsidy a very long time to live like a Shell-Fish upon his own Moisture without any publick Supply which truly he deserv'd as much or above his Predecessors For the Kingdom since his Reign began was Luxuriant in Gold and Silver far above the scant of our Fathers that liv'd before us Only the King wanted who bred all the Plenty It was dry upon the Fleece only and there was Dew on all the ground Jud. 6.40 Besides those Princes should be chearfully supplied whose Wisdom procures us safety and quiet by Treaties rather than by Effusion of Blood For as Or sins says well lib. 5. Hist Tributum pretium pacis est What is Tribute but a Debt duly paid to Princes for enjoyment of Peace Secondly and far above Mony the King desired to close with his people in such a strein of mutual good liking as might give him high Reputation in all Countries wherein he did negotiate by his Ministers A course that hath a long Span of forecast in it For a good Correspondence with all the Heads of the people is a Sign of the general Love of the Realm And a King that is beloved at home will be dreaded abroad The House of Austria to whom he had sent often for the Restitution of the Palatinat which they had invaded was so great in its own Opinion that where they Treated nothing came from them but that which was fastidious and insolent As at this time the King of Spain would deign to grant Peace to the States of the United Provinces not unless upon conditions unsupportable which were these four First to acknowledge him for their Patron and Protector Secondly To recal their Fleets and Merchants out of the East and West Indies surrendring what they had in either unto him and to Trade in those Parts no more Thirdly To permit the Roman Catholics free use of Religion in all their Provinces with Churches and maintenance Fourthly To open the Channel of free Navigation between Zealand and Antworp They that would demand no less for their Friendship where they had not one Foot of possession were like to vex them with more lofty Bravadoes and Grandiloquence in whose Territories their Armies had been most prosperous through breach of Promises Therefore our King was provident to fill himself with his just dimensions like the Praepotent Monarch of Great Britain fortified with the Concord and Affections of his Parliament that by his Ambassadors employ'd to prevent the Fears the Miseries and Oppressions of War he might not beg but demand He might not crave but postulate his Childrens Inheritance 59. I could not spare these Premises for the Illustration of the sequel The Parliament began to sit whose bearing was dutiful to the King but quick and minatory against some vile persons who had spoil'd the people by illegal oppressions These were Canker-worms Harpies Projectors who between the easiness of the Lord Marquess to procure and the readiness of the Lord Chancellor Bacon to comply had obtain'd Patent Commissions for latent Knaveries which Exorbitancies being countenanc'd in the Court were grown too strong for any Justice but the Parliaments to root them up There the Appeals of the vexed Subject were heard more like to Out-cries than Complaints which fell thick upon Sir Gyles Mompesson and Sir Francis Michel for Fines and Levies raised upon Inns and Ale-houses Arbitrary impositions and a President dangerous to spread even to Shops and Ware-houses Others remonstrated against a pack of Cheaters who procured the Monopoly of Gold-thread which with their spinning was palpably corrupted and embased These Gilt Flies were the bolder because Sir Edward Villers half Brother to the Lord Marquess was in their Indenture of Association though not Named in their Patent A Gentleman both Religious and true hearted to good ways who was ensnared by crafty Merchants and so far excus'd that after strict enquiry when this Adulterate Ware came to the Test it appear'd that he knew not of the Juggling of the Patentees who drew on grievances with Threads of Vanity and Scandal upon the Chief Government with Cords of Iniquity Together with these Vermin and much more than these the Lord Chancellor was question'd and without pity to his Excellent Parts the Castle of Munera as I borrow it from Mr. Spenser's Divine Wit must be quite defaced Monopolies and Briberies were beaten upon the Anvile every Day almost every Hour The obnoxious that were brought to the Bar of Justice with a multitude that feared to be in as ill condition saw no way for safety but to Poyson the King with an ill Opinion of the Parliament that it might evaporate into a Nullity They terrifie the Lord Marquess that the Grants of these things which are now Bastardized by the Knights and Burgesses nay by the Lords that envy him were begotten by his Favour and Credit That the Arrow of Vengeance is grazed near to himself which is shot at his Brother That it was time to look about him for at
For confirmation of it I will anticipate how he was breath'd till he was almost out of breath with a violent but short Sickness upon the end of the first Term that he appeared in Chancery It was the Term of Michaelmas and in the November of it the Parliament sate again in which he attended in the Office of Speaker in the Lords House With these concur'd a spiny and difficult Treaty between our Merchants and the Agents of the United-Provinces for the most savage Insolencies committed at Amboyna a Treaty wherein he was the Chief Commissioner and the sharpest against those Thieves and Murderers Which Treaty took up three Afternoons constantly in every week while it continued to hear that Cause In the Court of Chancery beside the ordinary Work several Causes and of a reaching number were referred in the preceding Session of Parliament to the succeeding Lord Keeper to review the Orders of the Predecessor displaced Into this vast Sea of Business he launch'd forth all at once Hereupon my self and half an hundred more have seen his Industry that he was compel'd to sit by Candle-light in the Court two hours before day and there to remain till between eight and nine that the Prince being come to the Lords House sent for him to take his Place there to Propound and Report the Questions of that Honourable House till past twelve every day not seldom till past one After a short Repast at home he returned to hear the Causes in Chancery which he could not dispatch in the morning Or if he did attend at Council in Whitehall he came back toward evening and followed his Employment in Chancery till eight at night and later Then on the neck of this when he came home he perused such Papers as were brought to him by his Secretaries And after that though far in the night prepared himself for so much as concerned him to have in readiness for the Lords House in the morning In this overwhelming hurry of Troubles of such divers sorts and compositions what time come could he borrow for necessary Refreshment or the Repose of his wearied Body night or day And as the good King pick'd him out for this Task because He foresaw that none would outdo him in Diligence so He prefer'd him to be Great in Place because He knew he was great in Courage The Supporters on the Steps of Salomon's Throne were not Sheep but Lions The way to be Just is to be Inflexible the way to be Inflexible is to be Stout casting all thoughts of Fears and Favours under feet No man by natural complexion could be better engrained for it I will take it up from one that had no mind to say the best of him Mr. Art Wil. p. 196. He was of a comely and stately Presence and that animated with a great Mind made him appear very proud to the vulgar Eye Quaedam videntur non sunt So far was his Heart from Pride that he never thought himself the finer for the Trappings of Fortune Yet so far from baseness that he knew the Bench he sate upon and would not be made despicable in the Eyes of the World much less be brought about to serve great Men's turns and stretch the Causes of the Court according to the Contents of their Letters and Messages which were no better in a rude Phrase then to be a Pandar to their Lust to let them deflower Justice Therefore in the same Leaf says Ar. Wil. again The height of his Spirit made him odious to them that raised him happily because they could not attain to those Ends by him which they required of him The height of his Spirit made him speak freely and counsel faithfully and decree justly though that Lord to whom he had espoused his greatest Devotion were concerned in the Opposition Which was rectitude and magnitude of Mind as Tully in his Brutus makes Atticus decipher Caesar Splendidam miniméque veteratoriam dicendi rationem tenet voce motu formâ etiam magnifieâ generosâ quodammodò His Person his Gesture his Eloquence were magnificent and generous whose wont it was to reduce his chief Friends to Reason not craftily and timidly but with a noble and sublime Sincerity 65. Among the Qualities of a good Judge there is one remaining and fit to bring up the Rear which the King look'd upon as verily to be presaged in his new Officer an Hand clean from corruption and taking Gifts which blind the Eyes of the Wise and pervert the Words of the Righteous Deut. 16.19 'T was loudly exclaimed and the King was ashamed to have so far mistaken the Persons that there were sucking Horse-Leeches in great places Things not to be valued at Money were saleable and what could not Gold procure As Meander writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Friends and Judges and Witnesses you may have them for a Price nay such as sit in the place of God will serve you for such Wages The wise King having little prevailed by Monitions and Menaces against this fordid Filthiness cast his Liking upon a Man whom He might least suspect for Gripleness and Bribery The likeliest indeed of all others to shake this Viper from his hand and to be armed with a Breast-plate of Integrity against the Mammon of Iniquity for he was far more ready to give then to take to oblige then to be beholding Magis illud laborare ut illi quamplurimi debeant as Salust of Jugurtha He was well descended of a fortunate and ancient Lineage and had made his progress to Advancements by Steps of Credit a good Bridle against base Deviations What then made an an unsavoury Historian call him Country Pedant A Reproach with which H. L. doth flirt at him in his History of King Charles a scornful Untruth So I shake off this Bar and return to the Reverend Dean who was in a Function of Holy Calling next to God Among them I know all have not been incorrupt the Sons of Samuel turned aside after Lucre and took Bribes and perverted Judgment 1 Sam. 8.3 But commonly I trust they do not forget what a Scandal it is if God's Stewards turn the Devils Rent-Gatherers He was also unmarried and so unconcerned in the natural Impulsion of Avarice to provide for Wife and Children Our old moral Men touched often upon this String that Justice is a Virgin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Hesiod and therefore fit to be committed to the trust of a Virgin Magistrate He was never fullied with Suspicion that he loved Presents no not so much as Gratuidad di Guantes as the Spaniards Phrase is but to go higher they are living that know what Sums of Value have been brought to his Secretaries such as might have swayed a man that was not Impregnable and with how much Solicitousness they have been requested to throw them at his Feet for Favours already received which no man durst undertake as knowing assuredly it would displace the Broker and be his Ruine And
which he had in a Monastery called Becc in Normandy and that Hospitality kept him when he fled out of England and all the Revenues of his Mitre failed him Stephen Gardner Bishop of Winton and Lord-Chancellor held the Mastership of Trinity-hall to his Dying-day and though he gave forty better Preferments to others he would never leave his Interest in it and did not conceal the Cause but said often If all his Palaces were blown down by Iniquity he would creep honestly into that Shell They that will not be wise by these Examples Ia Teâ— I will send them to School to a Fable in Plautus Cogitato mus pusillus quà m sit sapiens bestia AEtatem qui uni cubili nunquam committit suam Qui si unum ostium obsideatur aliud perfagium quaerit So in the upshot he said Walgrave was but a Mouse-hole yet it would be a pretty Fortification to Entertain him if he had no other Home to resort to He was not the only Prophet of that which is fallen out in these dismal Days many such Divinations flash'd from others who saw the Hills of the Robbers afar off who have now devoured the Heritage of Jacob and say they are not Guilty and they that have sold us and bought us say Blessed be the Lord for we are rich Zech. 11.5 74. Whom I leave to a Day of Account having an Account to give my self how Prosperous the Lord-Keeper was in the King's Affections at this time to whom His Majesty measured out his accumulated Gifts not by the Bushel or by the Coome but by the Barn-full It was much he had compacted his own Portion to such advantage but it was not all for being warm in Favour he got the Royal Grant for the Advancement of four more who are worthy to be named He spake and sped for Dr. Davenant to be made Bishop of Salisbury who had plowed that I may allude to Elisha 1 King 19.19 with twelve yoke of Oxen and was now with the twelfth when this Mantle was cast upon him Twelve years he had been Public Reader in Divinity in Cambridge and had adorn'd the Place with much Learning as no Professor in Europe did better deserve to receive the Labourer's Peny at the twelfth Hour of the Day Beside what a Pillar he was in the Synod of Dort is to be read in the Judgment of the Britain Divines inserted among the public Acts his Part being the best in that Work and that Work being far the best in the Compilements of that Synod The Bishopric of Exon being also then void it came into the Lord-Keeper's head to gratifie a brace of worthy Divines if he could attain it his old Friends who had been both bred in the House of Wisdom with the Lord-Chancellor Egerton Dr. Carew who had been his Chaplain a man of great Reason and polish'd Eloquence and Dr. Dunn who had been his Secretary a Laureat Wit neither was it possible that a vulgar Soul should dwell in such promising Features The Success was quickly decided for these two prevailed by the Lord-Keeper's Commendation against all Pretenders the Bishopric of Exeter was conferred upon Dr. Carew and Dr. Dunn succeeded him in his Deanery of St. Paul's The See of St. David's did then want a Bishop but not Competitors The Principal was Dr. Laud a Learned Man and a Lover of Learning He had fasten'd on the Lord Marquess to be his Mediator whom he had made sure by great Observances But the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had so opposed him and represented him with suspicion in my judgment improbably grounded of Unsoundness in Religion that the Lord Marquess was at a stand and could not get the Royal Assent to that Promotion His Lordship as his Intimates know was not wont to let a Suit fall which he had undertaken in this he was the stiffer because the Arch-Bishop's Contest in the King's Presence was sour and supercilious Therefore he resolved to play his Game in another hand and conjures the Lord-Keeper to commend Dr. Laud strenuously and importunately to the King 's good Opinion to fear no Offence neither to desist for a little Storm Accordingly he watch'd when the King's Assections were most still and pacisicous and besought His Majesty to think considerately of his Chaplain the Doctor who had deserved well when he was a young Man in his Zeal against the Millenary Petition And for his incorruption in Religion let his Sermons plead for him in the Royal Hearing of which no Man could judge better then so great a Scholar as His Majesty 75. Well says the King I perceive whose Attorney you are Stenny hath set you on You have pleaded the Man a good Protestant and I believe it Neither did that stick in my Breast when I stopt his Promotion But was there not a certain Lady that forsook her Husband and married a Lord that was her Paramour Who knit that Knot Shall I make a man a Prelate one of the Angels of my Church who hath a flagrant Crime upon him Sir says the Lord-Keeper very boldly you are a good Master but who dare serve you if you will not pardon one Fault though of a scandalous Size to him that is heartily Penitent for it I pawn my Faith to you that he is heartily Penitent and there is no other Blot that hath fullied his good Name Vellcius said enough to justifie Murena that had committed but one Fault Sine hòc facinore potuit videri probus You press well says the King and I hear you with patience neither will I revive a Trespass any more which Repentance hath mortified and buried And because I see I shall not be rid of you unless I tell you my unpublish'd Cogitations the plain Truth is that I keep Laud back from all Place of Rule and Authority because I find he hath a restless Spirit and cannot see when Matters are well but loves to toss and change and to bring Things to a pitch of Reformation stoating in his own Brain which may endanger the steadfastness of that which is in a good pass God be praised I speak not at random he hath made himself known to me to be such a one For when three years since I had obtained of the Assembly of Perth to consent to Five Articles of Order and Decency in correspondence with this Church of England I gave them Promise by Attestation of Faith made that I would try their Obedience no further anent Ecclesiastic Affairs nor put them cut of their own way which Custom had made pleasing unto them with any new Encroachments Spotswood p. 543. Marquess Hamilton the King's Commissioner in the last Parliament that ever he kept in Scotland having Ratified the Five Articles of Perth by Aâ—â— of Parliament assured the People that His Majesty in his days should not press any more Change on Alterations in matters of that kind without their Consent Yet this man hâ—th pressed me to invite them to a nearer conjunction with the
Liturgy and Canons of this â—â—tion but I sent him back again with the frivâ—lous Draught he had drawn It seems I remembred St. Austin ' s Rule better then he Ipsa mutatio consuetudinis ctiam quae adjuvat utilitate novitate perturbat Ep. 118. For all this he feared not mine Anger but assaulted me again with another illfangled Platform to make that slubborn Kirk stoop more to the English Pattern But I durst not play fast and loose with my Word He knows not the Stomach of that People but I ken the Story of my Grandmother the Queen Regent That after she was inveigled to break her Promise made to some Mutineers at a Perth Meeting she never saw good day but 〈◊〉 thence being much beloved before was despised of all the People And now your 〈◊〉 hath compel'd me to shrive my self thus unto you I think you are at your furthest and have no more to say for your Client May it please you Sir says the Lord-Keeper I will speak but this once You have indeed convicted your Chaplain of an Attempt very Audacious and very Unbeseeming my Judgment goes quite against his C. Gracâ—â—hus mended nothing but lost himself in his Tribuneship Qui nihil 〈◊〉 nihil tranquillum nihil quietum nihil denique in côdom staturelinquebat I am assured he that makes new work in a Church begets new Quarrels for Scriblers and new Jealousies in tender Consciences Yet I submit this to Your Sacred Judgment That Dr Laud is of a great and a tractable Wit He did not well see how he came into this Error but he will presently see the way how to come out of it Some Diseases which are very acute are quickly cured And is there no whee but you musl carry it says the King Then take him to you but on my Soul you will repent it And so went away in Anger using other fierce and ominous Words which were divulged in the Court and are too tart to be repeated So the Lord-Keeper procured to Dr. Laud his first Rochet and retained him in his Prebend of 〈◊〉 a Kindness which then he mightily valued and gave him about a year after a Living of about 120 l. per annum in the Diocese of St. David's to help his Revenue Which being unsought and brought to him at Durham-House by Mr. William Winn his Expression was Mr. Winn my Life will be too short to require your Lord's Goodness But how those Scores were paid is known at home and abroad Which he that will excuse hath no way but to shift it upon an Adagie Unum arbustum nen capit erithecos duos He that would be Great alone cares not whom he depresseth that would be as Great as himself 76. More cannot be required to shew how great the Lord-Keeper's Credit was with the King then that four Bishopricks were bestowed at once to three others with himself for which he interposed All three did then observe him with Congratulation as their Raiser Salisbury and Exeter were Men of faithful Acknowledgment in all their Life Est tanti ut gratum invenias experiri vel ingratos says Seneca He that finds two faithful Men among three is well requited Our Saviour found but one among Ten Luke 17.15 This Quaternion making ready for their Consecration a Calamity fell out which put them all to their Studies that they knew not which way to turn The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury making a Summer Journey into Hampshire was welcom'd by the Lord Zeâ—nch and invited to some Hunting-Sports in Bramshill-Park about St. James-tide The Arch-Bishop pretending to be a Wood-man took a Cross-bow to make a shot at a Buck. One of the Keepers did his Office to wind-less up the Deer to his stand who too suddenly shot at a fair-headed Buck in the Herd But his Arrow meeting with a small Bought in the way was cast a little from the mark and by an unhappy Glance wounded the Keeper in the Arm. It was but a Flesh-wound and a slight one yet being under the Cure of an heedless Surgeon the Fellow died of it the next day The like had never happen'd in our Church nor in any other in the Person of a Bishop and a Metropolitan which made work for Learned Men to turn over their Books Councils and Canon-Laws and Proviso's of Casuists were ransack'd whose Resolutions were unfavourable and greatly to the prejudice of the Fact It was clear in our Common-Law that his Personal Estate was forfeited to the King though it were Homicidium involuntarium But he was quickly comforted that he should not Suffer in that For upon the first Tidings His Majesty who had the Bowels of a Lamb censured the Mischance with these words of melting Clemency That an Angel might have miscarried in that sort The Arch-Bishop was an happy man in this Unhappiness that many Hearts condoled with him and many precious Stones were in the Breast-Plate which he wore that Pleaded for him He was Painful Stout Severe against bad Manners of a Grave and a Voluble Eloquence very Hospital Fervent against the Roman Church and no less against the Arminians which in those days was very Popular he had built and endowed a beautiful Eleemosynary Mansion at Guilford where he was born he sent all the Succors he could spare to the Queen of Bohemia the King 's only Daughter was a most stirring Counsellor for the Defence of the Palatinate was very acceptable to the Nobility and to the People both of this Realm and of Scotland where he had preach'd often 14 years before when he was in the Train of the Earl of Dunbar All those Flowers in his Garland were considered severally and mixtly when this gloomy day of Misfortune bedarken'd him And you may be sure our Sovereign Lord thought it the more Pardonable because it was an Hunting Casualty and was very Humane to those Harms beyond prevention which fell out in that Sport wherein he greatly delighted Therefore His Majesty Resolved and gave it him in a Consolatory Letter under his Hand That He would not add Affliction to his Sorrow nor take one Farthing from his Chattels and Moveables which were Confiscated by our Civil Penalties 77. But it cost more Labour to get out of the Ecclesiastical Brias for many of our best advised Churchmen took it sore to heart and lamented for it not without bitter Tears for the Scandal which was fallen upon our Church in his Person who in the Eye of General Councils and Canon-Laws was wonderfully Tainted and made Uncapable to all Sacred Functions performing Therefore to come home to the case they said God forbid those Hands should Consecrate Biships and Ordain Priests or Administer the Sacraments of Christ which God out of his secret Judgments had thus permitted to be embrued in Human Blood And some of the Prelacy profess'd If they had fallen into the like mischance they would never have despaired of God's Mercy for the other Life but from this World they would have retired and besoughts
it that the Impulsive of it was the supposed Irregularity which was then reviv'd but because he would not Licence a Sermon of Dr. Sibthorp's which the King sent to him by Mr. W. Murry of the Bed-chamber for his Hand to the Printing which he denied saying There was some Doctrine in the Sermon which was contrary to his Judgment I write I confess by hear-say but I heard it from his own mouth and have it in a Manuscript under his own Hand It had been a wild thing to rake up the Irregularity again out of the Embers since in the interim he had Consecrated many Prelates nay since he had Consecrated the Elements of Christ's Supper at the King's Coronation and set the Crown upon His Majesties Head And not long after he returned from Foord to a Parliament Summon'd to begin March 17. 1627. he Consecrated that Learned Divine Mr. Richard Montagu Promoted to the See of Chichester at Croydon Aug. 24. 1628. Yet that great Scholar had Presented his studied Papers for the Irregularity to the Lord-Keeper more then any man But now he was satisfied to be Consecrated by the whilom Irregular supposed And at the same time Dr. Laud then Bishop of London was Assistant with the Arch-Bishop to impose Hands Such Changes there are in Human Judgments 80. Perhaps I may be thought Irregular my self that I have knit the Election and Consecration of the Bishop of Lincoln to the long Series and Discussion of this famous Case I crave Pardon if I want one Now I step back to the Lord-Keeper who before the end of June was a Keeper of more then he desired the Earl of Southampton one of his dearest Friends on Earth being committed a Prisoner to his Custody A worthy Lord and of a gallant Freedom yet such as less then Kings do not like In the Session of Parliament which was then newly ended he was interpreted to exceed in some words against the Royal Prerogative a Stone of Offence that lay in many men's ways Beside he had Rebuk'd the Lord Marquess of Buckingham with some Passion and Acrimony for speaking often to the same thing in the House and out of Order Therefore he was Confined but with as much Gentleness as could be devised rather to a Nurse then a Jaylor But the Lord-Keeper though he lik'd his Guest yet he preferred his Liberty before that Liking and never gave over till he had got his Enlargement discharged him from the Attendance of Sir William Parkhust who as a Spy was sent to wait upon him at Tichfield that he might be lest only to the Custody of his own good Angel as he writes Cabal p. 59. Likewise in Tenderness to the Earl's Wealth and Honour he kept him from an Information in Star-chamber which was threatned and buoy'd him up at last to the King's Favour so as he might rather expect new Additions then suspect the least Diminution from his Gracious Majesty Though all this came purely from his Love and Industry yet of all that was obtained he would take nothing to himself but directed the Earl to cast his Eye upon my Lord of Buckingham Of whose extraordinary Goodness says he your Lordship and my self are remarkabe Reflections the one of his Sweetness in forgetting Wrongs the other of his Forwardness in conserring Court sies These Passages occur in the Printed Bundle But there is a Letter the Publisher of the former did not meet with it dated two days before Jul. 19. written to the Lord Marquess in behalf of that Honourable Earl and likewise of Mr. J. Selden my great Friend while he lived who was clap'd up at the same time because being a Member of the House of Commons in that Parliament he had preferred the danger of telling Truth before the safety of Silence Thus for them both together he Solicites My most Noble Lord WHat true Applause and Admiration the King and your Honour have gained for that gracious and most Christian-like Remorse shewed the E. of Southampton a Delinquent by his own Confession I refer to the Relation of others lest I might be suspected to amplifie any thing which my self had propounded The Earl if he be a Christian or a moral honest Man will endeavour to regain His Majesty's further Favour by more observance and to requite your unexpressible Goodness towards him by all true and hearty Friendship both which he deeply Vows and Protests Now poor Mr. Selden flies to the same Altar of Mercy and humbly Petitioneth your Lordship's Mediation and Furtherance He and the World take knowledge of that Favour your Lordship hath ever offorded my motions and my self without the motion of any and so draweth me along to Entreat for him The which I do the more boldly because by his Letter inclosed he hath utterly denied that ever he gave the least Approbation of that Power of Judicature lately usurped by the House of Commons My Lord The man hath excellent Parts which may be diverted from an Affectation of Applause of idle People to do some good and useful Service to His Majesty He is but young and this is the first Offence that ever he committed against the King I presume therefore to leave him to your Lordship's Mercy and Charity These soft words mollified Anger and Mr. Selden was Released by the next Pacquet that came from the Court in progress If the Stoics had been wise men truly the Lord-Keeper had been none for they pronounced with their Master Zeno in Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That wise Men are not Pitiful But insooth there was never a greater Stickler then he to bring Afflicted Ones out of Durance and Misery when he could effect it by Power and Favour none that lent their hand more readily to raise up those that were cast down But if a Gentleman of Mr. Selden's merit were under the peril of Vindicative Justice he would stretch his whole Interest and cast his own Robe as it were to save him When he had brought him to Liberty he stay'd not there He perceived his Fortune in those days was not equal to his Learning therefore he conferred the Registership of the College of Westminster upon him not meaning to hinder his Growth with a Garment that was too little for him but he procured a Chapman that gave him 400 l. for his Right in the Place A Courtesie which Mr. Selden did never expect from the Giver and was repaid with more Duty and Love then the Giver could ever have expected from Mr. Selden And although that singular good Scholar Mr. Montagu did never agree with Mr. Selden as their Adverse and Polemical Writings about the Right of Tithes do evidence yet the Lord-Keeper made them both agree in his Favour and Patronage Which Mr. Montagu hath proclaimed abroad in his Treatise of Invocation of Saints Licensed for the Press with his Lordship 's own Hand in Right as he was his Visitor in the Colleges of Windsor and Eaton His Words may be found in the Epistle Dedicatory
easier then to observe two which are in Print already But Twelve days after he was sworn Lord Keeper Mr. Secretary Calvert wrote to him and used the King's Name and to make all the stronger the Spanish Ambassadors Mediation was not wanting to deliver one Rockweed a Papist out of the Fleet. Not a jot the sooner for all this but he excuseth his Rigor to the Lord Marquess Cabal p. 62. That he would not insame himself in the beginning to break his Rules so foully which he was Resolv'd to keep straight against ah Men whatsoever Another of the same Stamp pag. 65. One Beeston had been committed from the Power of the High Court of Chancery loathing this Captivity he besought this New Officer to be Releas'd and was denied he Cries out for Mercy to the King Roars out that the Parliament might hear him follows the Lord Bucking with his Clamors who advised the Keeper to consider upon it It is a Maxim indeed in Old Colwnella lib. 6. c. 2. pervicax contumacia plerumque saevientem fatigat c. Boisterous Importunity thinks to fare better then modest Innocency but he gave the Lord Marquess this Answer My Noble Lord. Decrees once made must be put in Execution Else I will confess this Court to be the greatest Imposture and Grievance in the Kingdom The Damned in Hell do never cease repining at the Justice of God Nor the Prisoners in the Fleet at the Decrees in Chancery In the which Hell of Prisoners this one for Amiquity and Obstinacy may pass for a Lucifer I neither know him nor his Cause but as long as he stands in Contempt he is not like to have any more Liberty A Lion may be judg'd by these two Claws of his Pounce 83. And now I have past over these exordial Marks of his Demeanour and sufficiency before the Term began Upon the first day of it when he was to take his Place in Court he declined the Attendance of his great Friends who offered as the manner was to bring him to his first settling with the Pomp of an nauguration But he set out Early in the Morning with the Company of the Judges and some few more and passing through the Cloysters into the Abby he carried them with him into the Chappel of Henry the Seventh where he Prayed on his Knees silently but very Devoutly as might be seen by his Gesture almost a quarter of an hour then Rising up chearfully he was Conducted with no other Train to a Mighty Confluence that expected him in the Hall whom from the Bench of the Court of Chancery he Greeted with this Speech MY Lords and Gentlemen all I would to God my former Course of life had so qualified me for this Great Place wherein by the Will of God and the special Favour of the King I am for a time to bestow my self that I might have fallen to my Business without any farther Preface or Salutation Especially considering that as the Orator observes Id ipsum dicere nunquam sit non ineptum nisi cum est necessarium This kind of Orationing hath ever a Tincture of levity if it be not occasion'd by some urgent Necessity For my own part I am as far from Affecting this Speech as I was from the Ambition of this Place But having found by private Experience that sudden and unexpected Eruptions put all the World into a Gaze and Wonderment I thought it most convenient to break the Ice with this short Deliberation which I will limit to these two Heads my Calling and my Carriage in this Place of Judicature 84. For my Calling unto this Office it was as most here present cannot but know not the Cause but the Effect of a Resolution in the State to Change or Reduce the Governour of this Court from a Professor of our municipal Laws to some one of the Nobility Gentry or Clergy of this Kingdom Of such a Conclusion of State quae aliquando incognita semper justa as I dare not take upon me to discover the Cause so I hope I shall not endure the Envy Peradventure the managing of this Court of Equity doth Recipere magis minus and is as soon diverted with too much as too little Law Surely those Worthy Lords which to their Eternal Fame for the most part of an hundred years Govern'd and Honour'd this Noble Court as they Equall'd many of their own Profession in the knowledge of the Laws so did they excel the most of all other Professions in Learning Wisdom Gravity and mature Experience In such a Case it were but Poor Philosophy to restrain those Effects to the former which were produced and brought forth by those latter Endowments Examine them all and you shall find them in their several Ages to have the Commendation of the Compleatest Men but not of the deepest Lawyers I except only that mirror of our Age and Glory of his Profession my Reverend Master who was as Eminent in the Universal as any other one of them all in his choicest particular Sparguntur in omnes Uno hoc mista fluunt quae divisa beatos efficiunt conjuncta tenet Again it may be the continual Practise of the strict Law without a special mixture of other knowledge makes a Man unapt and undisposed for a Court of Equity Juris Consultus ipse per se nihil nisi leguleius quidam cautus acutus as M. Crassus was wont to define him They are and that cannot be otherwise of the same Profession with the Rhetories at Rome as much used to defend the Wrong as to Protect and Maintain the most upright Cause And if any of them should prove corrupt he carries about him armatam nequitiam that skill and Cunning to palliate the same that that mis-sentence which pronounced by a plain and understanding Man would appear most Gross and Palpable by their Colours Quotations and Wrenches of the Law would be made to pass for Current and Specious Some will add hereunto the Boldness and Confidence which their former Clients will take upon them when as St. Austin speaks in another Case They find That Man to be their Judg who but the other day was their hired Advocate Marie that depraedandi Memoria as St. Jerom calls it That promness to take Mony as accustom'd to Fees is but a Base and Scandalous Aspersion and as incident to the Divine if he want the Fear of God as to the common Lawyer or most Sordid Artizan But that that former Breeding and Education in the strictness of Law might without good Care and Integrity somewhat indispose a Practiser thereof for the Rule and Government of a Court of Equity I Learned long ago from Plinius Secundus a most Excellent Lawyer in his time and a Man of singular Rank in the Roman Estate for in his 2 3 and 6 Epist Making Comparison between the Scholastici as he calls them which were Gentlemen of the better sort bred up privately in feigned pleadings and Schools of Eloquence for the
foolish in their several Extreams of Years I prostrate at the Feet of your Princely Clemency Which was granted as soon as the Paradox was unridled to pitch upon them Another Gust that blew from the same Cape I mean from the Pulpit began to be so boisterous that it came very cross to his Majesty's Content Our Unity among our selves was troubled in Point of Doctrine which was not wont The Synod of Dort in the Netherlands having lately determined some great Controversies awakned the Opposition of divers Scholars in our Kingdom who lay still before Learned and Unlearned did begin to conflict every Sunday about God's Eternal Election Efficacy of Grace in our Conversion and Perseverance in it with much Noise and little Profit to the People The King who lov'd not to have these Dogmatizers at Variance us'd all speed to take up the Quarrel early that our Variances might not reproach us to them that were without For there was that in him which Pope Leo applauded in Marcian the Emperor Ep. 70. In Christianissimo Principe sacerdotalis affectus He was a mixt Person indeed a King in Civil Power a Bishop in Ecclesiastical Affections After he had struggled with the Contentious Parties a while and interposed like Moses Sirs ye are Brethren Acts 7.26 and that this rebated not the keen Edge of Discord he commanded Silence to both Sides or such a Moderation as was next to Silence First Because of the Sublimity of the Points The most of Men and Women are but Children in Knowledge and strong Meat belongs to them only that are of full Age Hebr. 5.14 St. Austin subscribed to that Prudence Lib. 2. de porsev c. 16. Unile est ut taceatur aliquod verum propter incapaces Secondly Because the ticklish Doctrine of Predestination is frequently marr'd in the handling either by such as press the naked Decree of Election standing alone by it self and do not couple the Means unto it without which Salvation can never be attained or by those that hold out God's peremptory Decrees concerning those whom especially he hath given to Christ and do not as much or more enforce the Truth of Evangelical Promises made to all and to every Man that whosoever believeth in the Son of God shall not be confounded Now let the Reader consider all the Premises and he shall find how the Instructions that follow depend upon them Which in Form and Stile were the Lord Keepers in the Matter his Majesty's Command and were called Directions concerning Preachers 101. Forasmuch as the Abuses and Extravagancies of Preachers in the Pulpit have been in all Ages repressed in this Realm by some Act of Council or State with the Advice and Resolution of Grave and Learned Prelates insomuch as the very Licencing of Preachers had his Beginning by an Order of the Star-Chamber 〈◊〉 July 〈◊〉 Hen. 8. And that at this present young Students by Reading of late Writers and ungrounded Divines do broach Doctrines many times unprofitable unfound Seditious and Dangerous to the Scandal of this Church and Disquieting of the State and present Government His Majesty hath been humbly entreated to settle for the present either by Proclamation Act of Council or Command the several Diocesans of the Kingdom these Limitations and Cautions following untill by a general Convocation or otherwise some more mature Injunctions might be prepared and enacted in that behalf First That no Preacher under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop or Dean of a Cathedral or Collegiate Church do take occasion by the Expounding of any Text of Scripture whatsoever to fall into any Discourse or common Place otherwise than by opening the Coherence and Division of his Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in Essence Substance Effect or natural Inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth 1562 or in some one of the Homilies set forth by Authority in the Church of England not only for a Help to the Non-preaching but withal for a Pattern and a Boundary as it were for the Preaching Ministers And for their further Instruction for the Performance hereof that they forthwith read over and peruse diligently the said Book of Articles and the two Books of Homilies Secondly That no Parson Vicar Curate or Lecturer shall Preach any Sermon or Collation upon Sundays and Holy Days hereafter in the Afternoon in any Cathedral or Parish Church throughout the Kingdom but upon some Part of the Catechism or some Text taken out of the Ten Commandments or the Lords Prayer Funeral Sermons only excepted And that those Preachers be most encouraged and approved of who spend this Afternoon's Exercise in the Examining of the Children in their Catechisms and in the Expounding the several Heads and Substance of the same which is the most ancient and laudable Custom of Teaching in the Church of England Thirdly That no Preacher of what Title soever under the Degree of a Batchelor of Divinity at the least do henceforth presume to Preach in any Popular Auditory the deep Points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Universality Efficacy Resistibility or Irresistibility of Gods Grace but leave those Themes to be handled by Learned Men and that moderately and modestly by way of Use and Application rather than by way of positive Docttine as being Points fitter for the Schools and Universitles than for simple Auditories Fourthly That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop shall presume from henceforth in any Auditory within this Kingdom to Declare Limit or bound out by way of positive Doctrine in any Sermon or Lecture the Power Prerogative Jurisdiction Authority or Duty of Sovereign Princes or to meddle with Matters of State and the References between Princes and the People otherwise than as they are Instructed and Precedented in the Homily of Obedience and in the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth as before is mentioned by Publick Authority but rather confine themselves wholly to those two Heads of Faith and good Life which are all the Subject of the ancient Sermons and Homilies Fifthly That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall causelesly and without any Invitation from the Text fall into any bitter Invectives and undecent raising Speeches or Scoslings against the Persons of either Papists or Puritans but modestly and gravely when they are occasion'd thereunto by the Texts of Scripture free both the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England from the Aspersions of either Adversary especially where the Auditory is suspected to be tainted with the one or the other Infection Lastly That the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of the Kingdom whom his Majesty hath just Cause to blame for former Remisness be more wary and choice in Licensing of Preachers and revoke all Grants made to any Chancellor Official or Commissary to pass Licenses in this kind And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom a new Body severed from the ancient
he had dazled the World with that false Light he never pleas'd his Judges that had secretly tried the Constitution of his Conscience Sir Edward Sackvile who shortly succeeded his Brother Richard in the Earldom of Dorset was at Rome Ann. 1624. and had Welcom given him with much Civility in the English College so far that he presum'd to ask rather out of Curiosity than Love to see this Prisoner de Dominis Mr. T. Fitz-herbert the Rector did him the Observance to go with him to the Jayl He found him shut up in a Ground-Chamber narrow and dark for it look'd upon a great Wall which was as near unto it as the breadth of three spaces Some slight forms being pass'd over which use to be in all Visits says Sir Edward My Lord of Spalato you have a dark Lodging It was not so with you in England There you had at Windsor as good a Prospect by Land as was in all the Country And at the Savoy you had the best Prospect upon the Water that was in all the City I have forgot those things says the Bishop here I can best Contemplate the Kingdom of Heav'n Sir Edward taking Mr. Fitz-Herbert aside into the next Room Sir says he tell me honestly Do you think this Man is employ'd in the Contemplation of Heav'n Says the Father Rector I think nothing less for he was a Male-content Knave when he fled from us a Railing Knave while he liv'd with you and a Motley parti-colour'd Knave now he is come again This is the Relation which that Honourable Person made Ann. 1625. which I heard him utter in the hearing of no mean Ones 113. But by this time Spalat was dead either by his fair Death or by private strangling Gallo-Belgicus that first sent the News abroad knew not whither But he knew what became of his Body that it was burnt at the same place in Rome where Hereticks do end their Pain It is a Process of Justice which is usual with their Inquisition to shew such abhorrence to Hereticks that were so in their sense to call them to account though they be dead and rotten First They are so Histrionical in their Ceremonies as if they made a Sport of Barbarousness that they cite the dead Men three several Days to appear or any that will answer for them but happy they if they do not appear then their Carkasses or Bones are brought forth and burnt in the common Market with a Ban of Execration The latest that were used so among us were Reverend Bucer and Fagius at Cambridge Anno 1556. And Dr. Scot Bishop of Chester one of Cardinal Pole's Visitors defended it before the University Haud mirum videri debeat si in mortem quoque ista inquisitis extendatur Bucer Scrip. Angl. p. 925. Sic postulare sacros Canones p. 923. This is their Soverity from which the Dead are not free Now by the Blaze of that Bonfire in which De Dominis his Trunk was consum'd we may read an Heretick in Fiery Characters I mean as he was entred into the black Book of the Roman Slaughter-House He lived and died with General Councils in his Pate with Wind-Mills of Union to concord Rome and England England and Rome Germany with them both and all other Sister-Churches with the rest without asking leave of the Tridentine Council This was his Piaculary Heresie For as Aâ—orius writes Tom. 1. Moral Lib. 8. Cap. 9. Not only he that denies an Article of the Roman Creed but he that doubts of any such Article is an Heretick and so to be presented to Criminal Judgment Si quem in foro exteriori l gitime allegata proâ—ata probaverint in rebus Fidci scienter voluntarie dubitasse arbitrer cum ut v re propriè haeretiâ—um puniendum Therefore if Spalat had return'd a Penitent in their Construction and imbodied himself into that Church as only true and Apostolical he could not have suffered in his Offals and Carkass as an Heretick So the same Azorius confesseth Lib. 8. Cap. 14. And Alphonsus à Castro is angry with Bernard of Lutzenburg for holding the contrary Lib. 1. Cap. 9. Quis unquam docuit eum esse dicendum haereticum qui errorem sic tenuit ut monitus conviclus non crubuerit palinodiam cantare This was the success of the variable Behaviour of M. Antonius de Dominis De Domims in the plural says Dr. Crakanthorp for he could serve two Masters or twenty if they would all pay him Wages He had an Hearing as it is mention'd before in our High Commission To countenance the Audience of so great a Cause the Lord Keeper gave attendance at it I began at that end of his Troubles and having footed all the Maze am come out at the other 114. Johosaphat distinguisheth between the Lord's Matters and the King's Affairs 2 Chron. 19.12 So do I in the Subject before me I have given some Says of his Church-Wisdom in the former Paragraph I go on to set the Sublimity of his State-Wisdom in the latter I must look back to a small Service which he did perform in Michaelmas-Term 1621. for as much as the Conjunction of some things which rais'd a Dust in the Year following are sit to go together Upon the solemn Day when the Lord Cranfield then Master of the Wards and immediately created Earl of Middlesex took his Place as Lord Treasurer in the Exchequer-Chamber the Lord Keeper gave him his Oath and saluted his Admission with a short Speech following My Lord You are called to serve his Majesty in the Place of a Lord Treasurer by the most Honourable and most Ancient Call in this Realm the delivery of a Staff to let you know that you are now become one of the surest Staffs or Stays that our great Master relies upon in all this Kingdom And these Staffs Princes must lean upon being such Gods as die like Mon and such Masters as are neither omni-sufficient nor independent For St. Austin writing upon that place of the Psalm I have said unto the Lord Thou art my God my Goâ—ds are nothing unto thee observes that God only is the Master that needs no reference to his Servant All other Masters and Servants are proper Relatives and have a mutual Reciprocation and Dependence Eges tu Domino tuo ut det panem Eget te Dominus tuus ut adjuves labore As the Servant wants a Master to maintain him so the Master wants a Servant to assist him For the present supplying of this want in his Majesty I will say as the Historian did of the Election of Tiberius Non quaerendus quem eligeret sed eligendus qui emineret The King was not now to think of one whom he should choose but to choose one who was most eminent For as Claudian said of Ruffinus Taciti suffragia vulgi Vel jam contulerant quicquid mox addidit Aula You were stated in this Place by the Votes of the People before you understood the Pleasure
of the Gravest and Greatest Pleaders who were ripe for Dignity And a Call of Serjeants was splendidly solemnized for Number Thirteen for Quality of the best Reputation May 6 1623 Who on that Day made their Appearance before Lord Keeper sitting in the High Court of Chancery who congratulated their Adoption unto that Title of Serjeancy with this Oration AS upon many other Occasions so likewise upon this present in hand I could wish there sate in this Place a man of more Gravity and Experience than can be expected from me to deliver unto you those Counsels and Directions which all your Predecessors have successively received at this Bar. Yet among many Wants I find one singular Comfort that as I am of the least Ability to give so you are of the least Need to receive Instructions of all the Calls of Serjeants that any Man now alive can bring to his Remembrance You are either all or the far greater Number of you most Learned most Honest and well accomplish'd Gentlemen Lest therefore my Modesty or your Integrity might suffer therein I will not be tedious in this kind of Exhortation but like those Mercuries or High-way-Statues in Greece I will only point out those fair Ways which my self I confess have never trodden In the beginning for my Preface be assured that your Thankfulness shall be recommended to his Majesty who hath honoured you with this high Degree making your Learning only and your Integrity His Praevenient and all other Respects whatsoever but subsequent and following Causes of his Gracious Pleasure towards you Turning my Speech next to your selves I will observe mine own common Exordium which hitherto I have used to all those whom I have saluted with a few words when they were Installed in their Dignities and I have it from the manner of the old Romans Meminisse oportet Ossicii Tâ—lum Remember the Title of your Degree and it will afford you sufficient Matter of Admonition You are call'd Servientes ad Legem Sergeants at the Law Verba bractrata Words very malleable and extensive and such as contein more Lessons than they do Syllables 122. The word Sergeant no doubt is Originally a Stranger born though now for many Years denizon'd among us It came over at the first from France and is handled as a French word by Stephen Pasquier in his Eighth Book of Recherches and the Nineteenth Chapter They that are too luxuriant in Etymologies are sometimes barren in Judgment as I will shew upon the Conjectures of this Name For they are not call'd Sergeants quasi Caesariens some of Caesars Officers as the great Guiacius thinks Nor Sergents qu isi Serregens because they laid hold on Men as inferiour Ministers But Sergiens in the old French is as much as Serviens saith Pasquier a Servant or an Attendant As Sergens de Dicu the Servants of God in the old History of St. Dennis Sergens Disciples de la Sanchitè Servants or Disciples of his Holiness the Pope in the Life of St. Begue And Sergens d'Amour Servants of Love in the Romance of the Rose a Book well known in our Country because of the Translator thereof Geoffry Chaucer And therefore as Pasquier thinks that those inferiour Officers are called Sergeans that is Servants because at the first Bailiffs or Stewards employ'd their own Servants in such Summons So this more honourable Appellation of Sergeant at Law hath received it Denomination because at the first when the Laws were no more than a few plain Customs When as the Year-Books had not yet swelled When the Cases were not so diversified When so many Distinctions were not Coined and Minted When the Volumes of the Laws through our Misdeeds and Wiliness were not so multiplied Men employ'd their own Servants to tender their Complaints unto the Judges and to bring them home again a plain and present Remedy But afterward Multitude of Shifts begetting Multitudes of Laws and Multitudes of Laws Difficulties of Interpretations especially where the Sword had engraven them in strange Languages as those induced by the Saxons Danes and Normans into this Island the State was enforced to design and select some learned Men to prepare the Causes of the Client for the Sentence of the Judge and the Sentence of the Judge for the Causes of the Client who though never so Enobled by their Birth and Education yet because they succeeded in those places of Servants were also call'd Servientes Sergeants or Servants Great Titles have grown up from small Originals as Dux Comes Baro and others and so hath this which is Enobled by the affix unto it a Sergeant at Law 123. Though you are not the Rulers of Causes and Masters upon the Bench yet it is your Pre-eminence that you are the chief Servants at the Bar In the Houshold of our Dread Sovereign the Chief in every Office who Commands the lower Ministers is advanced to be called the Sergeant of his Place as Sergeants of the Counting-House Carriages Wine-Cellar Larder with many others In like manner your Name is a Name of Reverence though you are styled Servants For you are the Principal of all that practise in the Courts of Law Servants that is Officers preferr'd above all Ranks of Pleaders For every thing must be Ruled by a Gradual Subordination You are next in the Train to my Lords the Judges And some of your File not seldom employ'd to be Judges Itinerant But you are all constantly promoted to be Contubernales Commensales You have your Lodgings in the same Houses and keep your Table and Diet with those Pillars of the Law who therefore call you and love you as their Brethren Fortescue in his sixth Book De laudibus Legum Angliae Cap. 50. compares your Dignities with the chief Degrees of the Academies And there is no Argument that proves the Nobleness of the one but it is as strong and militant for the other I will touch upon the Reasons as they are set down in Junius his Book De Academiâ and apply them in order to this purpose First This Degree is as a Caveat to the whole State and Commonwealth that by it they may know whom to employ and whom not to employ in their weighty Causes and Consultations And so doth Fortescue appropriate Omnia Realia Placiata all the Real Actions and Pleadings of his time to the Sergeants only Secondly As St. Paul saith to the Corinthians Epistola nostra vos estis You are our Letter or Epistle So may we the Judges in our several Places say unto the Sergeants Epistela nostra vos estis You are by reason of your Degrees our Letters of Recommendation unto the Kings Majesty for his Choice and Election for the Judges of the Kingdom Because as Fortescue also truly observes no Man though never so Learned can be chosen into that eminent Place Nisi statu gradu Servientis ad Legem fuerit insignitus Thirdly and lastly This Degree of Honour is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of
same Trust to him for this and he shall not fail After he had parted from the King so deeply Charm'd to bestir his Wits in this Negotiation he was as Active as one could be that had little to work upon The Prince and his Paranymphus the Marquess had wrote some Letters upon the way how far they had proceeded in their Journey But the Buen Message that they were come to the Cape of Good-Hope in the City of Madrid was not yet brought to the City of London where the conflux at this time was very populous their Errand being to hearken after News And the particulars they long'd to hear of were these Whether His Highness were Arrived at the Court in Spain When he would return again their Honest Affections ran too fast to look for that so soon Whether he were not Tamper'd withal to alter his Religion And some were so reasonable and well pleas'd some were not to ask Whether he were Married and would bring his Bride with him for hope of Future Issue As much Satisfaction was given to these Scruples from the Lord Marquess by the First Post that Arrived here as could be expected in so short a time as he had spent abroad Of which more in due time But before his Lordship 's came the Lord Keeper wrote again and again unto him to Assist the main business and to pour in such Counsels into his Lordship's Breast as keeping close unto them he might promise himself more Grace with the King and Commendation with the Subject Philosophers who wrote the Practices of a Good life agree That unfeigned Love doth Justifie it self in three Probations or in either of them when it is Faithful to a dead Friend who shall never know it or to a Friend undone in misery who cannot requite it or to an Absent Friend who doth not perceive it As none that have Faith and Candor will wish to declare their sincerity in the two former Experiments so neither will they fail in the opportunity of the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Antient Thales in Laertius Remember your Friends as well far of as near you And in Rome says Lil. Giraldus These two Adverbs were Written under the Image of Friendship Longe Prope Be as Officious nay more to your Friend remote from you as when you are hand in hand together I have drawn out the Lord Keeper's Observance to his Raiser my Lord of Buckingham with this Pensil of Morality It would be tedious to fill up Leaves with those copious and punctual Relations which he wrote to his Lordship of all Agitations in the Court of Suits preferred to the King and how far he went about to stop them all till his Pleasure was signified in the next Return That which comes to the Institute I handle was thus Endicted bearing Date Marth 31. My most Noble Lord I Do humbly thank your Lordship for your Letter and all other your loving Remembrances of me by the last Packet It hath much revived me to hear of your Lordship's good Speed so far I was Yesterday with His Majesty the first time I saw his Face since your Lordship's Departure to know his Opinion of this Letter to the Count Gondamar which I send enclosed to stir him up to consummate the Marriage His Majesty lik'd it exceeding well yet I have sent it opened that if your Lordship and my Lord of Bristow who are upon the Place shall not allow thereof it may be suppressed Truly the Reasons are no Colours but very real that if new and tart Propositions sent from Rome occasioned by the Possession they have of his Highness's Person should protract this Marriage the Prince is in great danger to suffer exceedingly in the Hearts and Affections of the People here at Home and your Lordship sure enough to share in the Obloquies Better Service I cannot do the Prince and your Lordship than to thrust on the Ministers of the King of Spain with the best Enforcements of my Judgment who if they dead this Business with a Calm it is almost as bad as a cross Gale But my Lord I will not fail to continue as faithful to your Lordship as to mine own Soul Which to do at this time is not thanks-worthy his Majesty being so constant or rather so augmented in his Affections towards you as all your Servants are extraordinarily comforted therewith and the rest struck dumb and silenced But if any Storm which God will keep off had appeared your Lordship should have found a Difference between a Church-man and others who hath nothing to regard in this World but to serve God and to be constant to his Friend all the rest being but Trash to him who can confine his utmost Desires to a Book and a little Chamber But God Almighty never imparted unto you a greater Share of his Majesty's Affections that at this Time 131. This went by Sir J. Epsley After whom within three days Sir George Goring followed who was stay'd till April the 3d the next day after the joyful Packet came that his Highness saw Madrid by the 7th of March in our Stile and came thither in Health and good Plight after so much Travel by Day and Night so much hard Lodging such slender Fare in base Village-Osteria's Away went Sir George I said with Alacrity the next Day and carried these Lines to my Lord of Buckingham from the Lord Keeper My most Noble Lord IN Obedience to your Commands which I humbly thank your Lordship for I do write by this Bearer yet no more than what I have have written lately by Sir John Epsley All things stand here very firmly and well which may concern your Lordship only the Great Seal walks somewhat faster than usual which is an Argument that it was not my Lord of Buckingham only that set it a going We hear the Affairs proceed well where your Lordship is And here is conceived generally Great Joy and Acclamation for the brave Entertainment that the Prince hath received which the People did yester-night very chearfully express by Bon-fires and Bells only the Consummation of the Matrimony is wanting to consummate our Joys Yet the People spread it abroad upon sight of the Bonfires that all is perfected As they do also speak of your Lordship's Dukedom a Title which will well become both your Person and Employment The Patent whereof I believe the King will shortly send to you to testifie his Joy and to gratifie your Service But my Lord I am still against the Opinion of many wiser Men averse to your Lordship's Return hither as desirous as I am to enjoy your Lordships Presence untill you either see the Prince ready for his Return or that you may bring him along with you I have sent another Letter to my Lord Gondamar to be delivered or suppressed as your Lordship shall please to let him know by my Expostulations falling so thick upon him what is behoveful to be done If they make us stay their leisure
and ever owing Thanks to your Grace The Dispensation is come and with it good Tidings that your Carriage hitherto hath been so discreet and the Event so fortunate that our Master is wonderfully pleas'd But we were formerly never so desirous to see that Box that carries this Dispensation than we are now to open it and to know by reading the same what God hath sent us We all wonder at his Majesties Reservedness for it came hither on Saturday last this Day sevennight But his Majesty hath enjoyned Mr. Secretary Calvert silence therein And I believe for my part at the least that Mr. Secretary hath perform'd his Commandment We all think and the Town speak and talk of the worst and of very difficult Conditions My dear Lord You have so lock'd up all things in your own Breast and sealed up his Majesties that now our very Conjectures for more they were not are altogether prevented If things succeed well this course is best if otherwise I conceive it very dangerous But it were a great Folly to offer any Advice unto you who only know what you transact in your own Cabinet How then shall I fill up this Letter To certifie this only that all Discontents are well appeased and will so remain without doubt as long as Businesses continue successful But if they should decline I am afraid the former Disgusts of your appropriating this Service will soon be resumed And then how dangerous it is to leave your Friends ignorant of your Affairs and disabled to serve you I refer to your Graces Wisdom and Consideration I do believe none of us all would keep your Counsel without a Charge to do so this keeping Counsel is a thing so out of fashion nor reveal it if it be otherwise required c. The Lord Keeper in this Letter miss'd the true Cause why his Majesty did not yet impart a sight of the Dispensation to any of his Counsellors The reason was because it came to him in a private Packet And he expected it to be deliver'd to him as it ought by Publick Ministers the Ambassadors of the King of Spain who kept it dormant about a Fortnight in their Hands whether it proceeded from their Native Gravida to retein that long in their Stomach which needed no Concoction or to listen what the many-headed Multitude would say in London or out of some other State-juggling As I have laid forth in this what was mistaken by the L. Keeper out of his own Memorials preserv'd So in another Line he hazarded his Love to be ill taken representing to the Duke the Truth That the King did somewhat disgust his appropriating the whole Service to himself that is repulsing the Earl of Bristol or restreining him to silence where their Counsels were held I know not whether the Duke did so soon regret at this for it is the first time and 't is well plaister'd over with mild Counsel So Statuaries says Plutarch do not only hew and peck the Alabaster upon which they work but smooth it likewise which is the neatest part of their Cunning. By another Letter from the same Hand dated near to the former May 11. I perceive that the Duke our Lord Admiral demanded the Navy Royal to be made ready and to be sent to the Coast of Spain to conduct the Prince and his Followers Home Which the King gave order to be done But the Lord Keeper wrote to his Grace if it were not with the soonest the main Matter not grown yet to any colour of ripeness That the Charge would be very heavy to the Exchequer Such a Fleet must be costly to be set forth but far more costly to be kept long abroad As for Cost it was the least thing that was thought upon It was no time for Frugality The Stratagem was to have the Navy lie ready at Anchor in some safe distance from the Spanish Havens That if the Prince could recover no Satisfaction to reasonable Demands from stiff Olivarez and other Grandees Or if they persisted to burden the Match with insupportable Conditions his Highness after a short Complement might take his leave and have all things prepar'd at a Days warning if the Wind serv'd for his Reduction into England With this Fleet some precious Ware never seen no nor heard of in Spain before at least among the Laicks was transported thither the Liturgy of our Church translated into the Spanish Tongue and fairly printed by the Procurement and Cost of the Lord Keeper The Translator was John Taxeda the Author of the Treatise call'd Hispanus Conversus a good Scholar once a Dominican whom his Patron that set him on work secured to our Church with a Benefice and good Prebend He studied this Translation Day and Night till it was ended He that writes this was often at his Elbow to communicate with him when he put Questions how to proceed But the Lord Keeper himself with other Overseers that had perfectly learn'd the Castilian Language perus'd it faithfully and if there were not aptness in any phrase corrected it With his Majesties Privity and great Approbation two Copies of it were carried Religious Tokens the one to his Highness the other to my Lord Duke as the best and most undeniable Certificate that a particular Church can shew to vindicate the right Profession of their Faith from all Scandals and to declare their Piety in all Christ's Ordinances squared and practis'd by a publick Rule after the Beauty of Holiness A Book of Common-Prayer which all call a Liturgie is suitable to the Form of good Churches in all Ages reduceth us to good Notions from wandring Extravagancies preserves Harmonious Conformity between all the Daughter-Churches that are called from one Mother in one Realm or State It is our Witness to assoil us when we are spitefully charg'd with Errours so Chamieras Gerardus Camero Spanhemius Amyraldus and divers more the best of Modern Writers in defence of the Reformed way draw their second Rank of Arguments next to the Sacred Scriptures out of their Liturgies to justifie their Tenents Finally with this Office of Divine Worship he that celebrates Gods Service is ready at all times to offer up to God the Sacrifice of Prayer when some perhaps at some times are affected with Languor of Health and then not so sit to speak suddenly to God in the behalf of the People and when the most have Infirmity of Judgment and are unsit at all times Beshrew the Tettar of Pride that runs over many Wits and makes them care for nothing that 's made ready to their Hand and puts them in love with nothing but their own Conceptions What have we lost Nay What hath God lost in the Honour due unto him How is his Truth How is his Name How is his Glory dis-reverenced over all this Land since our Liturgie hath been Mortgag'd to the Directory 139. It would be remembred that this comes in upon the mention of the Fleet call'd for and hastned to weigh Anchor
they of our part before you bring forth the whole Plump of your Articles No Fence could thrust by this Question but that it would stick fast in the Cause So we gained again that King Philip was restreined from making Faith for King James And although the Froathy Formality of promulging the Dispensation was kept back yet the Articles came into Play that the Commissioners on both sides might fall to a Session 142. But from Strife of Tongues from Fundamental Contradictions from Clashings every day what Fruit could be look'd for Do Men gather Grapes of Thorns If you will believe the Parties what this Lord objected against that Lord there was none that did Good no not one If you will believe their respective Defences to those Objections there was none that did amiss I cannot take up all the Blots they made with my Pen lest I make them bigger None of those Peers hath Justified himself so well in his Letters Apologies and Reports but that strong Inferences may be drawn from some Parts to disprove the rest What was spoken at the Conference of the Junto was within the Veil and under Covert but what is published out of it is most uncertain For the Lord Keeper after he had consulted with the Prince and searched all Papers to pass his Judgment what Countenance the Business should put on when the Parliament looked upon it but ten days before Feb. 2. 1623 He writes thus to the Duke Cabal P. 90. That all the Reckoning must not be cast up before the Parliament for fear they should fall to particular Dispatches wherein they cannot but find many Contradictions After whom I glean up this Handful He that writes upon this Subject what is reserved in the Memorials of those Days writes after the Canon of Integrity but when he is monished that there are Contradictions in those Memorials he can never be secure that he hath compiled an uncorrupt History Upon this Staff he may rest That when the Chief Counsellors fell out among themselves like the Midianites every Man's Hand against his Brother as worthy Actors as I count them to be yet every one was out in his Part. Nay He that will adjust the Course of any one in this high Transaction in all things will burn Truth in the Hand and spare the Guilty He that aspired to be Dioscorus the most preeminent in the Company let him be first considered That is Conde Olivarez the Abner in the Service of his Master Ishbosheth whose Humor would brook to be crost by no Man ingrained in Nature to be Aristotle's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Opiniator a costive Counsellor that would hold the Ground where he stood and move for no Perswasion By the fortunate Gale of Court-Favour he had lived in continual Custom to carry all before him without being stopt As Velleiâ—s says of M. Agrippa Parendi sed uni scientissimus aliis sanè imperandi cupidus so he was very servile to please King Philip and look'd that all beside should be as servile to please him Such a Spirit is intolerable in Counsel and not to be coapt with that thinks it an indignity unless he speak for all and Vote for all Such a States-man is like to bring nothing to a good End but himself to an ill one Our Princes Reports may be held of all other to be most Authentical from whom take it thus His Highness representing the Treatise of Spain to the Lords of the Privy-Councel at St. James's Octob. 30. 1623. Begins that the first man that did give him great Profession of welcom into Spain was this Olivares and in the interview in the Garden assured him that all business should be dispatch'd as fast as his Highness wish'd That the Temporal Articles should straightway be Concluded and the Spiritual Articles about Religion should cause no delays but be remitted to the Wisdom of the King his Father and his Gracious Promises But says his Highness The longer I staid the less I found him my Friend and the oftner I spoke with him the less he kept his Word But our Duke of Buckingham after a little acquaintance found the Conde Duke a great deal worse to him They came in no place but with shews of disdain at one anothers Persons and like two great Caraques in a foul Sea they never met in Counsel but they stemmed one another In every Proposal if one said so the other said no if one lik'd it the other slighted it Could it be expected that the Counsels of the whole Table should not be at a Fault when the two Presidents appear'd in Hostility of Opinions When the Malady of disaffection lay not hid in the Veins but broke out in the Body When they never brought their Offers within compass of Probability One Observes for their parts that run Races Alex. lib. 2. c. 21. Quanto minor in corpore splen foret tanto perniciores homines esse He that hath the least Spleen will make the best Footman So in all Negotiations he that is most Calm will dispatch most work but put Wise-Heads together yet where there is much Spleen there will be little done There was no likelihood but the Northern and Southern Favourites as the Lord Keeper foretold would look proudly one upon another when they met in the same Cock-Pit Courtesie was quite out of fashion with them that he that receiv'd it might not seem the greater Emulation was all in Fashion to dim each others Light by casting Shadows of Opposition Only these Animosities between two high Spirits so ill Match'd were the Seed of the Quarrel which I press against a vulgar and a scandalous Error made Table Talk in all England that our Duke had Attempted the Chastity of the Condessa Olivares and was Cheated with a diseased Strumpet laid in his Bed c. This is grosly contumelious The Lady was never solicited by Buckingham to defile her Honour with him as Sir Wal. Aston will Testifie in a Postscript of a Letter to the Duke Cabal p. 33. The Condessa of Olivares bids me tell you that she Kisseth your Grace's Hands and does every Day Recommend you particularly by Name in her Prayers to God which Salutation she durst not have sent to his Lordship no not for her Life if the Duke had offer'd toward that Indignity to make her a Strumpet And for the Rest of this Obscene Tale the worthiest Gentlemen that waited upon his Person in that Journey have assur'd me that as well in Spain as when he came from thence into England his Body was Untainted from that Loathsomness not to be Named the just Recompence of Rotten Lust Yet perhaps more will Read these Reasons then believe them though they cannot Answer them Few have been so happy to be Redeemed from the Rumor of a common Slander For as the most Eloquent of Men says Orat. pro Plancio Nihil est tam volucre quà m Maledictum nihil facilius emittitur nihil citius excipitur nihil latius
Infanta what you have merited and to accommodate all other Mistakes here concerning that Proceeding If your Grace would reconcile your Heart I would not doubt but with the Conclusion of the Match to compose all things to your good Satisfaction and to bring them to a true Understanding of you and of their Obligation unto you But his Lordship knew what he had deserved and that it was not possible to look for good Quarter from them So he cut off the Thread of the Match with these Scissors The Love of the English must not be lost the Love of the Spaniard could not be gain'd But it was passing ill done of him to deal so with his dear Master to whom he owed more than ever he could pay for whom he should not have been nice to hazard his Preservation He knew the bottom of the King's Bosom that his Majesty accounted this great Alliance to be the Pillar of his present Honour and the Hope of his future Prosperity That all his Counsels with foreign States turned upon that Hinge That he looked for golden Days with it which would fill our People with rich Traffick and spread Peace over all the Borders of Europe He knew his Lord the King desired to live but to see it finished and car'd not to live after he saw it vanished Crediderim tunc ipsam fidem humanam negotia speculantem maestum vultum gessisse Valer. lib. 6. Let the Duke have his deserved Praises in other things great and many but let Fidelity Loyalty and Thankfulness hide their Face and not look upon this Action Let his Friends that did drive him to it and wrought upon his flexible Disposition bear much of the Obloquy For it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Man but God that made the Law He that kindled the Fire let him make Restitution Ex. 22.6 148. He that hateth the Light loves not to come to the Light lest his Deeds should be reproved Joh. 3.20 The Politici that carried the Duke athwart with their excentrick Motion were very impatient to be discovered They thought they had beat their Plot upon a quilted Anvil and that their Hammer could not be heard But time is a Blab which will tell all Secrets and spared not this The Lord Keeper was much maligned as the Author of the Detection Yet he deserved not the Glory for it was the King himself by this Occasion The Embassadors of the Catholick King pressed that the Articles assented to by the Prince and those about him should be ratified And Preparation was made to give them Satisfaction So the Lord Keeper assures the Duke Cab. P. 78. The King is resolved to take certain Oaths you have sent hither and I pray God afterwards no further Difficulty be objected These Oaths being brought to discussion at the Council-Table there were among the Lords that supprest their Consent till better knowledge did warrant them and some Aspect of Necessity did make them resolute to Agreement While these few of the Lords were suspensive in their Judgment it was brought to the King that some profest Servants and Creatures of the Duke's cavilled at certain Articles in the matter of the Oath and were very busie to puzzle those who had not yet compleatly deliberated upon them The King laid this to other things he had heard and he was able to put much together in a Glance of Imagination and called one of them that was employed in this unacceptable Office to a private Conference whom his Majesty handled with such searching Questions conjured with such Wisdom wound into him with that Sweetness that he fetcht out the Mystery yet giving him his Royal Word to conceal his Person Sic suo indicio periit sorex So the Rat was catcht by his own Squeaking This his Majesty imparted to the Lord Keeper and Marquiss Hamilton and was not a little discomforted upon it for here was a Danger found out but not a Remedy Yet he went on chearfully to all seeming to that which was come to a ripe Head and gave Command to the Lord Keeper to prepare all things for the solemn Confirmation of the Covenants that were brought from Spain He went went about it and had about him those three Qualities which run together in St. Paul Rom. 12.11 Not slothful in Business fervent in Spirit serving the Lord That is Diligence Courage Conscience Zealots who are favourable to themselves that they think they have among them the Monopoly of Conscience had been able to discourage another who in common Discourse laid no less Crime than Atheism no Religion upon him that should give Furtherance to a Popish Marriage much more if for Reasons of State-Compliance he should refresh the Party adherent to Rome with any Mercy or Favour But this man regarded not Rumors before Reason God had given him a Spirit above Fear which he would often say had the greatest Influence in the Corruption of two brave things Justice and good Counsel So he was resolved as Illustrius says of Theod 〈◊〉 the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to spend or cast away some Wisdom not only for the Intelligent but for their Sakes that were ignorant and knew not how to use it The Precedent for this Work he conceived would be to turn over the Paper Stories of Queen Elizabeth's Reign when the first and second Dukes of Anjou were propounded for Husbands to that glorious Lady of whom the latter came so near to speed that wise Burleigh with others that had gray Hairs and grave Heads drew up a Book for the Consummation of the Marriage Lay that Treaty with the French Monsieur and this of Spain together and there needs no striving to bring them to great Resemblance in the Comparison There was as much Disparity in Religion between the one Pair as the other The Duke of Anjou came as unexpectedly to the Queen at Greenwich as the Prince came unlooked for to Madrid The Duke brought but two or three in Train Camb. Eliz. Fol. P. Ann. 1579. no more did the Prince The French Treaties continued eight years to obtain the Queen the same Term of time had been spent in the Prince's Behalf to enjoy the Infanta Eight years past and nothing past beside for both the Lovers were non-suited in the end The Duke of Anjou courted the Queen when her People regretted that he besieged the Protestants in Rochel at the same time Gladio ejus eorum cruore intincto qui eandem quam Angli profitentur Religionem Camb. An. 1573. Our Prince solicited for his Mistress in Spain when the Palatinate was wasted with Fire and Sword by Spinola which was dearer to us by far than Rochel Finally Take three things more in a Twist together Did some of our good People fear a Prejudice to Religion by the Prince's intended Match even so Religionis mutationem ab Andino Angli nonnulli timuerunt Did a Bride from Spain go against the vulgar Content So did a
came thither privily out of Love he scorn'd to steal away privily out of Fear But when he heard that some were set in ambush to interrupt his Return he bore it Heroically and without strife of Passion because he knew no Remedy to help it and wrote to the King his Father to be couragious in the sufferance with these Lines That if his Majesty should receive any Intelligence that he was deteined in that State as a Prisoner he would be pleased for his sake never to think of him more as a Son but to reflect with all Royal Thoughts upon the good of his Sister and the safety of his own Kingdoms That Family and those Children with whom King Philip held less Amity than with the English secur'd us afterwards from those fears But for other things the Grandees of the Consulto till their heat had vapoured out stood upon such Terms as had no Equity or Moderation For when Sir Fr. Cottington return'd with our Kings Oath plighted to the annexed Conditions for the ease of the Roman Catholicks the Spaniards made no Remonstrance of Joy says the Prince in his Report or of an ordinary liking to it Therefore the Lord Keeper observing that they had an insatiate and hydropical Malady that the more they gulpt down the more they thirsted he tried if they would take this Julip as he prepared it in his Letter to the Duke of Buckingham July 21. May it please your Grace I Have Received yours of the 8 of Julyby the Lord Andover and heartily thank your Grace for the News though not so compleatly good as we desir'd yet better then for many days together I expected beside the hope I retain it may still be better His Majesty and the Lords have taken the Oaths and the Laws against the Roman Catholicks are actually suspended as upon my Credit and Honesty they were a good while before Now July August September and a piece of October are left for a further Probation This being so what good will it do that Wise and Great Estate to Publish to all Christiandom their diffidence of so just a Prince especially being Sworn and Deposed Your Grace knoweth very well I would the State of Spain knew as much that all our Proceedings against Recusants is at our Assises which are holden at this instant and do not return again till after the first of March So as all the probate of the suspension of the Laws against them betwixt this and the first of March will be seen and discerned by the last of our August For between that and the first of March there can be no Trial at all I know if this were understood in that place it were unanswerable For the Proceedings in the King's-Bench which only can be objected are altogether depending upon Indictments at the Assises so that the Spring once stopt as now it is these Rivers grow Dry and run no more This will mollifie all Stubborness which is Resolv'd to stoop to Reason c. Here 's a Remonstrance then which nothing could be more placid or more solid upon which I look as upon Thaboren in Parthia as Justin describes it lib. 41. Cuius loci ea conditio est ut neque munitius quicquam neque amoenius esse possit Just at this time the Days of Trouble look'd darker and darker in Spain The Prince disgusted to Treat with a People that ask'd much and granted little and Wire-drew Counsels into Vexatious length resolv'd to take his leave and shew'd the King of Spain his Fathers Royal and Indispensable Pleasure that no Proffer should interpose but that he should hasten him for which his Navy did attend him upon the Coast of Biscay That it was no fault of his that he must depart when the Treaty was so imperfect but in them that made it a Justitium or Intermission of all Proceedings because upon the Death of the Pope the Court of Rome was not open Olivarez to divert his Highness made Two Propositions First That the Prince would come in to the Conditions as they came formerly from Rome or to stay till new ones might be agreed upon and Ratified at Rome Hoc illud cornucopiae est ubi in est quicquid volo says Pseudolus in Plautus Grant the Conde to make his Reference to Rome and you grant him all That 's the Goats-Horn or Jugglers Box out of which he can fetch any thing with a sleight The Prince answer'd him very gravely for one so young as he made the Report at St. James's The first motion he had declin'd before neither had he chang'd his Judgment nor should they find him a Shechem to pass over into a New Religion for a Wife Gen. 34. The other Motion he accepted this way He would go for England to perfect the Articles there and let them do the like at Rome Olivarez admired at his Reply but took it up with this Answer That to be gone so soon and nothing Model'd to the Content of any side would be a Breach therefore he humbly besought his Highness to stay but Twenty Days and he swore by all the Saints of Heaven then he was sure it would be a Marriage The Duke of Buckingham standing by said It is well but it might have been as well Seven years ago Which put the Conde to a great Anger and in his Anger made him Fome out a Secret That there was no Match intended Seven Months ago and says he I will fetch that out of my Desk that shall assure you of it So he produced a Letter written to one Don Baltasar with King Philip III. his own Hand as he Vowed The Prince was allowed to Read it then as much as he would but not to take a Copy all this was declared to the next Parliament in the Banquetting-House His Highness with Sir Wal. Aston better Skill'd in the Castilian Language Translated the Letter as their Memories would bear it away and kept it for a Monument This is the Letter which I think Mr. Prinn was the first that divulged out of the Lord Cottington's Papers which he had Ransack'd Whether it were a true Letter of King Philip's lies upon Olivarez Credit it never came out of his Custody or whether the Prince and Sir W. Aston mist nothing of the right Sense of it through Frailty of Memory when they came to Recollect the Sum of it in private is not yet decided Salomon alluding to the Contradictions that are in some Mens Parables says They are like the Legs of the Lame that are not equal Prov. 26.7 Let the best Bone-setter in the Hundred set these Legs even if he can An Authentical Notary in Spain Conde Olivarez shews it under Black and White that Philip the Father of the Infanta who died Anno 1621 held our King in Hopes but never intended to give his Daughter to the Prince of Wales Hear the Evidence of the other side His Highness Remembred the Parliament That Sir Wal. Aston was struck Mute at the Reading of
which all Convenencies that were formerly thought upon will cease The Remedy which he propounds to fail without all these Shelves I never did light upon out of this Letter 'T is thus The Emperor as your Majesty knows by his Embassador desires to Marry his Daughter with the King of England ' s Son and I doubt not but he will be glad to Marry his Second Daughter to the Palatine's Son So all the Conventencies of Alliance will be as full in this For it accommodates the Matter of the Palatinate and the Succession of his Grand-Children without Blood or Treasure Here is a new Bride appointed for his Highness the eldest Daughter of the Emperor which is unlikely to be intended because it comes from none but such an Author as Olivarez and in as much as when Count Suartzenburg came about eighteen Months before Embassador to our King from Caesar this was not moved at that Oportunity and when the Prince came to Spain no shadow of it remained but it was vanished like a Morning-mist before the Sun Now follow their Whimsies and their In and Ou ts at the Consulto when the Prince was among them The first Onset that Olivarez gave was That they were ready to follow all the Demands of the King of Great Brittain concerning the Match for his Son to the Demands for his Son-in-Law he said they were not in their Power to effect his Country was extended upon by the Emperor his Electoral Dignity invested in the Duke of Bavaria And within this Charm they kept us long till we were weary with their Obstinacy and sate down a while as when Boys Scourge a great Top till they make it sleep At last the Prince's Highness offended that he could gain nothing by this Alliance for his dear Sister 's Good offered to give King Philip a Farewel that he might look timely at Home for the Relief of her Misery On this no man courts his Highness to stay so much as Olivarez and to slacken his Return revives the Consult of the Restitution promiseth the strongest Mediation that the King his Master could make with the Imperialists and Bavarians which if it were rejected but they hoped better he would be forward for his Part to stir up his Catholick Majesty to give his Brother the King of England Assistance by Arms to procure him his Satisfaction Yet whatsoever he said his Heart lay a thought farther and he had a Trick to redeem himself out of this Promise for he told his Highness in a Weeks space after that he found their Nation so linked to the Love of the House of Austria that they would never march chearfully into the Field against it For all this the Weather-cock turn'd and he was affrighted in a moment into a good Mind again So did his Highness report at St. James's that a false Alarum being brought to Madrid that Count Tilly with his whole Body of Foot and Horse was routed in Germany instantly the Conde Duke came with as much Fear as Hast unto the Prince and with as much Lowliness as his Knee upon the Ground vowed he would give him a Blank for the Restitution of the Palsgrave's Interest but when the Second that is the worst News came that the Duke of Brunswick was quite defeated the Mood was changed with the Man and he spake as loftily from that Matter as if the great Armada had been failing again upon our Brittish Ocean Into how many Paces did Hipocrisie put him Sincerity would have got him Honour dispatch the Work and saved him all this Trouble for with the same Study nay with far less men may attain to be such as they ought to be which they mis-spend in seeking to be such as they are not Quibus id persuasum est ut nihil mallent se esse quà m bonos viros iis reliquam facilem esse doctrinam Cic. de orat lib. 3. After that great Don Jasper had put himself to the Expence of all this Folly he riveted in two Straws more like than Wedges to cleave the Knot First Let the Marriage be Consummated and then despair not but the Princess Infanta would beg the Palatinate with her earnest Prayers that she might be received with Honour and Applause among her Husband's People That is Seal their Patent and we shall have an empty Box to play with Or else marry the Lady and leave her behind till the Business for the Palsgrave's Patrimony were accommodated which is like Velez's Trick in Gusman of Alfarach to 〈◊〉 away both the Bride and the Bride-Cake The great Projector held close to one Proposition at the last that since Prince Frederick the Elector had highly offended Caesar in the Attempt and Continuance of it in the Matter of Bohâ—mia no Account should be had of his Person but Restitution should be made to his Eldest Son by Marrying the Second Daughter of the Emperor in which Clause the Prince concurred But the Sting in the Tail was that he should be bred up in the Emperor's Court to mold him into a Roman Catholick Upon which his Highness broke off the Earl of Bristol as a sharp Letter chargeth him written by the Prince Cab. Pag. 17. swallowing down that Difficulty at a Gulp because without some such great Action neither Marriage nor Peace could be had But Sir Wal. Aston flew back saying He durst not give his Consent for fear of his Head Now we have the Duke Olivarez in all his Party-colours who knew that the Breach of Alliance with England would be transcendently ill for Spain yet he would hazard a Mischief unless he might tear a Princely Limb from the Protestant Religion not unlike to the Paeotlans in Justin lib. 8. Tanto edio Phoâ—sunn ardentes ut obliti cladium 〈◊〉 perire ipsi qâ—à m non perdere eos praeaptarent How the Duke Olivarez smoothed it a Letter of his which would make a Pamphlet for the length will manifest which to this day hath lain in Obscurity but is worthy to come abroad It follows 161. HIS Majesty being in the Escurial I desired these my Lords the Embassadors that they wou'd repair hither to the end that we might treat of perfecting those things which concern the Palatine forasmuch as might be done from hence wherein we procure as you know to give Satisfaction to the King of Great Britain through whose Intercession together with that of the most Excellent Prince his Highness we have procured to dispose things in Germany and have used those Diligences which you know The Means which hath ever seemed most easie and apt for the well addressing of this Business is to Marry the Eldest Son of the Palatine to the second Daughter of the Emperor bringing him up in the Court of his Caesareal Majesty whereby the Restitution both of the States and Electorate to the said Son might be the better and more satisfactorily disposed And in this Conformity we have ever understood and treated and propounded it here But now coming close to
c. to forbear any Moleslation of his said Subjects in respect of their Religion To send them forth with as much speed as conveniently may be that his Majesty may be freed from the Complaints of the Ambassadors Thrice again he was charg'd with the same Command To all which he answer'd He could do nothing without a private Warrant for it and that it was not possible to be agreed upon till he spake with his Majesty On the 6th of September the same Secretary writes again That an Exemplification of the Pardon should be deliver'd to the Ambassadors under the Great Seal That 's not hard to be done But upon what Limits and Conditions So the Lord Keeper rejoyns Sir G. Calvert is troubled again to satisfie that Scruple That no Copy of it should go out to any of the Roman Catholicks nor any of them be permitted to sue out their Pardons until his Majesties Pleasure be further known This came Sept. 8. The Lord Keeper held back yet till he knew what Assurance he should have from the Ambassadors to keep those Conditions Which held a Contest till Sept. 19. When Mr. Secretary Conway writes from Theobalds His Majesties Pleasure is That you deliver unto the Marquiss Inoiosa an Exemplification of the Pardon and Dispensation And his Majesty would not that you should press him for a Note of his Hand for Secresie and Stanchness for giving of Copies of the Pardon or Dispensation but only by Word to refresh his Memory of the faithful Promises he hath made in that Point to the King upon which his Majesty will relie Indeed it was order'd at Windsor Sept. 7. as appears in a Letter of Secretary Conways that when Marquiss Iniosa had the Exemplication all the Crast was in Catching that he should communicate them to none nor give Copies of them till we had knowledge from Spain of the Marriage or Desponsories There was nothing about these days that mitigated the Embassador more than a Trick that in sine did him least good Properly and without Levity it may be called a Flop with a Fox-Tail The Lord Keeper closed in with him not to be so hasty for Exemplifications which the Clerks of the Crown must write over soft and fairly A Matter of more weight should presently be set on foot not of Words but of real Benefit and Performance to his Party and to the Choice of them a Pardon for the Romish Priests that were imprisoned about which there had been struggling and yet nothing effected As the Lord Keeper seemed forward so to see the ill Luck it was cramp'd by a Letter from Sir Edward Conway Sept. 6. Dat. Windsor Right Honorable HIS Majesty hath signed the Warrant that was sent for the enlarging of the Priests out of Prison that he may shew the Reality of Performance on his Part in all that is to be done Yet his Majesty commits the Warrant to your Keeping without further Use to be made save only to pass the Great Seal which you may be pleased to expedite till important Considerations be provided for and satisfied As First That his Majesty receive Advertisement of the Marriage or Desposories Secondly That Provision be taken for these Priests that have expressed their Duties to the King either in Writing in his Defence or in taking the Oaths whose Protection his Majesty holds himself bound to continue and not to suffer them to incur any Danger for that their Conformity Thirdly That Order be taken that such Priests enlarged be not left at Liberty to execute their Functions publickly or at their Pleasure but only under such Limitations and Restraints as by the Pardon and Dispensations are provided 166. Of these three Caveats entred to modifie the Liberty which was Petitioned for and promised to the Priests the middlemost was a brave one wherein the Lord Keeper revenged himself on Inoiosa for all his Forwardness It aimed at one man Mr. Preston a Secular Priest Honest and rarely Learned The Author of the Works under the Name of Roger Widrington for the Oath of Allegiance The Author of that solid Piece called The last Rejoynder to T. Fitzherbert Bellarmine's Sculckenius and Lessius his Singleton upon that Subject Printed An. 1619. This Man for his own Preservation lay quiet in the Marshalsea his Death being threatned by the rigid Papalins This was he that was set forth as the only Evidence of his Majesty's Royal Mercy toward those that were in Holy Orders of that Religion the present Pattern of his keeping Promise according to the Articles But such a Priest as that if Marq. Inoiosa had been consulted for his Release perhaps he would have cried out Not him but Barabbas Preston had Leave that Summer twice or thrice to come to the Lord Keeper at Nonsuch where I saw them together discoursing as long as Leisure and Business would permit That Interview procured the Warrant for his Pardon from the King as followeth James Rex TO the Reverend Father in God Our Right Trusty and Right Well-beloved Counsellor Jo. Lord Bishop of Lincoln Lord Keeper of Our Great Seal of England Right Trusty and Right Well-beloved Counsellor We Greet you well These are to will and require to pass one Pardon and Dispensation according unto the Warrant directed unto you concerning the Roman Catholicks of this Kingdom in general for the Use and Benefit of Preston a Secular Priest now a Prisoner in our Prison of the Marshalsea And delivering unto the Spanish Embassador an Exemplification of the same Pardon under the Great Seal to keep the Original so Sealed under your own Custody untill you shall receive from Us some further Order Given at Our Court at Windsor Sept. 8. c. The Releasment of Preston was accordingly dispatched the first Fruits of the Common Grace expected by others sent as a Present to Don Inoiosa nay a Precedent for consequent Releasments So Secretary Conway to the Lord Keeper Sep. 17. His Majesty's Order to your Lordship was That the Pardon for this one Man should be exemplified as the Limitation and Rule to the Form of all the rest So as without Dispute or Controversie that was a present Possâ—ssion an Act performed by the King to be executed alike to each one to whom it appertains at the Time and upon the Conditions before specified the Sight whereof might give the Embassador Contentment But it was far from that Don John the Marquiss durst not say he was mocked but he fum'd like Lime that is slack'd with Water to see of all the Priesthood that man only enlarged whom above all he most hated Therefore his Violence augmented press'd the King so far that his Majesty caused the same Secretary to write again very roundly the next day to the Lord Keeper Right Honorable HIS Majest hath received from the Spanish Embassador a large Declaration of his Grievance by the great Delays he finds from your Lordship in point of the Pardon and Dispensation an Exemplification of which your Lordship hath Order to deliver
unto him He complains further of want of Expedition in the Letters to be written by your Lordship to those principal Officers to whom it pertains for the Suspension of all Trouble and Molestation to the Roman Catholicks his Majesty's Subjects in matter of their Conscience His Majesty marvails not a little that the Pardon and Dispensation are so long delayed before they be delivered and the Letters so long before they are written His Majesty being troubled and offended that Cause should be taken upon these Delays by the Embassador to call into Jealousie his Majesty's Roundness and Integrity in Proceeding In all which Points his Majesty now prays you to give all possible Expedition that his Majesty may be no more soiled with the Jealousies and Suspitions of the Embassador nor importuned with their Requests for those things so entirely resolved on Albeit this Letter is so strict and mandatory the Lord Keeper presumed on the King's Goodness to write a Remonstrance to Mr. Secretary Conway flat against the Mandate with sundry Reasons to shew the high Expedience that the Instruments demanded should not yet be delivered To the which on the 9th of September Mr. Secretary sends back word Right Honorable I Have represented yours of the 18th to his Majesty who interprets your Intentions very well and cannot but think it good Counsel and a discreet Course had the State of the Business been now entire But as Promises have been past the Truth of a King must be preferred before all other Circumstances and within three Days you must not fail to deliver the Exemplification of the Pardon and Dispensation with the Coppy of the Letters c. Two Days after see the Hand of God September 21 a Post brought Intelligence that the Prince was departed with fair Correspondencies from the Court of Spain was certainly long before that time on Shipboard and would weigh Anchor as soon as Wind and Weather served him So in good Manners all Solicitations were hush'd and attended his Highness's Pleasure against he came into England These are the Performances of the Lord Keeper upon the Immunities which the Papists contended for to be derived to them by the Prince's Marriage with the Daughter of Spain Whither any States-man could have contrived them better I leave it to be considered by the Senators of the Colledge of Wisdom in my Lord Bacon's new Atlantis If it be possible for any to disprove these excellent Excogitations of Prudence with his Censure he will force me to say in this Lord's Behalf what Tully did for the Pontiss of old Rome Orat. pro resp Aurus Satis superque prudentes sunt qui illorum prudentiam non dicam assâ—qui sed quanta fuerit perspicere possint The Collection of all the precedent Passages were gathered by that Lord himself and stitched up into one Book every Leaf being signed with the Hands of Sir George Calvert and Sir Edward Conway principal Secretaries to his Majesty If it be asked to what end was that provided it was to shew he had a Brest-Plate as well as an Head-Piece It was to defend his Integrity against any Storm that dark Days might raise about the Spanish Matters It was a gathering thick when my Lord of Buckingham caused Mr. Packer his Secretary to write a Letter of Defiance to him Cab. P. 87. wherein every Penful of Ink is stronger than a Drop of Vicriol Take a Line of it That in the Spanish Negotiation he had been dangerous to his Country prejudicious to the Cause of Religion which he above all others should have laboured to uphold But rip up all his Actions turn the Linings outward shew any Stain-Spot in his Fidelity in his Innocency chiefly in his Maintainance of the Reformed Religion Therefore he met the Lord Duke couragiously Pag. 89. I do not in the least beg or desire from your Grace any Defence of me if it shall appear I betray'd my King or my Religion in Favour of the Papist or did them any real Respect at all beside ordinary Complement Therefore I appeal to all Posterity who shall read this Memorial how a Minister in his Office and intrusted with the whole weight of such a ticklish Negotiation could come off better with more Honour with lâ—ss Prejudice Photius in his Biblioth says of Saluslius the Cynick that he was a worthy Man but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had listed himself into that Sect of Philosophy which was carved out or exposed to Reproach and Contumiâ—y So this noble Councellor was as Harmless as he was Wise as Honest as he was Active But the Business which he underwent for his great Master and the Prince was Planet-struck with an ill Opinion of many and could look for no Thanks but from a few that were the Wisest 167. Especially most circumspect and diligent Endeavours if superior Providence hath decreed to make them barren shall not be pitied as they deserve but be insulted upon because they cannot reach their End The best Angler that is we commonly think he fish'd ill if he catch'd nothing Inde plaerumque eadâ—m sacta modò diligentiae modò vanitatis modò libertatis modò furor is nomen accipiunt Plin. lib. 6. Ep. Lucky Success makes a Fool seem wise and a wise man that is unfortunate shall be called a Fool. It is a hard Task to dig into the Mines of Poâ—icy when Event shall be the Measure both of Reward and Praise Yet all this must be endured after his Highness took his Leave of Spain the Donna Hâ—rmesa left behind the Stock of Love spent and in a while the Credit of it protested Our King was not ill disposed to the News that is Son made preparation to come Home The People began to be churlish that he staid so long And his Majesty look'd for no Good from that Part of the World while our Duke was in it He found that so long as he was so remote from his Tutorship he was heady a Novice in carrying Business and very offensive to the Crown of Spain The Prince was desirous to make haste from them that would make no better haste and could no longer endure the Pace of a dull Spanish Mule As a weary Traveiler's Inn seems still to go further from him so his Highness had attended long for a sweet Repose in Wedlock till it made him impatient and think that every Consuito cast him further back from the Fruition of his Joys The Junto of the Spanish States-men were very magisterial and would not bate an Inch but that every thing should be timed to a day as they designed it These were the Links of the Chain by which they pluck all Power to themselves First A Disposorios or Contract must go before the Marriage For that 's a Rule from which their Church doth never vary unless good Order be broken by clandestine Marriages To the Contract they could not go on in this Case till the Dispensation from the new Pope gave Authority for it That came to
Madrid Novemb. 12. says Sir Wal. Aston whom I believe though others say later The tenth day after the Dispensation made known in the Church let the Betrothing be Solemnized and the tenth day after it the Marriage Then the Prince may take his own Time to return when he will but the Lady could not make ready for the Seas considering her Train that must attend her till March. The Prince did not like the Arithmetick of this Counting-Table More time than the first Week of September he was resolved not to spend in that Land The Coming of the Dispensation he would not await which might be failing thither upon the idle Lake in the Fary Queen â—oth slow and swift alike did serve their turn To stay and Consummate the Marriage in his own Person he knew was unfit in two Respects He must take a Blessing from one of their Bishops in the Face of their Church and submit to their Trinckets and Ceremonies which he had rather hear than see Then if the Infanta had Conceived they would keep her it is likely till she was delivered The Child must stay till it was strong to endure the Seas so it might come to pass to be bred up and Naturalized a Spaniard in Religion and Affection When the Clock would not go right with those Plummets the Junto cast the i me out ino another Figure that his Highness would out of Courtship wherein he excelled and out of great Love to his Mistress which he professed perfect the Desponsation in his own Person and trust no other with it the Marriage and the Lady should follow after that is upon the Certificate of their Embassador out of England that Conditions were performed there to which the King of Great Briâ— ain had engaged To this his Highness was short That he would linger no longer and play at Cards in King Philip's Palace till the Messenger with the Port-mantick came from Rome Neither would he depend upon Embassadors and their Reports when the Illustrious Damosel should begin her Journey towards England Embassadors might certifie what they pleased and inform no more than their great Master's Counsel inspired them At last his Highness took upon him to deside the Wrangling and cast out the sacred Anchor from the Stern to keep their Counsels from further Floating that he would be burdensom to the K. of Spain no longer the magnetick Vertue of his own Country drew him to it Yet to confirm that he lest his Heart behind with his Beauteous and high born Mistress he would Sign a Proxy and Assign it to K. Philip or his Brother Don Carlo or either of them which should remain in the Custody of the Earl of Bristol that the Espousals between him and the Infanta might be ratified within ten days after the dispensation unstopt the way unto them and he would leave it to the Princessa to shew her Cordial and Amorcuolous Affections how soon she would prepare to follow after him 168. Which stood for a Decree agreed and obey'd The King of Spain would have been glad if the Prince might be perswaded to stay longer in his Court But since after Six Months continuance there his Highness defir'd to breath again in his Native Air King Philip caused preparation to be made for it for freedom is the Noblest part of Hospitality and was dismiss'd with as much Honour and Magnificence as he was Receiv'd The Earl of Briâ—ol who certainly knew the day when he took his Leave writes to the Lord Keeper Cab. p. 21. That he would begin his Journey for England the 9th of Sept. others set it three days back and adds the day before I Conceive the contract will be which is false Printed it should be That the Day before he would Sign and Seal his Procuration for the Contract which Intelligence is Authentick being so Corrected Now looking upon those that were the Magnificoes of Spain when the Prince took his farewel of them and how dear they held him how they Voiced him beyond the Skies for the most express Image they had seen of Vertue and Generosity methinks his Highness should have behold it with his Eyes open and have inferred out of it that he could not be more happy then to marry with that Blood and to keep Friendship with that Nation He was most Gracious in the Eyes of all Great and under Great Never Prince parted with such Universal Love of all Cab. p. 16. and Bristol to the Lord Keeper p. 21. The Love which is here born generally to the Prince is such as cannot be believ'd by those that daily hear not what passeth from the King and his chief Ministers The most concern'd was the rare Infanta of whom says one out of the Spanish Reports Sander p 552. That she seem'd to deliver up her own Heart at parting in as high Expressions as that Language and her Learning could with her Honour set out Let not this Essay of her sweetness be forgotten that when the Prince told her His Heart would never be out of Anxiety till she had pass'd the intended Voyage and were safe on British Land She Answered with a modest Blush That if she were in danger upon the Ocean or discompos'd in Health with the rowling brackish Waves she would chear up herself and remember all the way to whom she was going For which she deserves to be Honour'd with Theogena the Wife of Agathocles for that saying Se nubendo ci non prosperae tantùm sed omnis fortunae iniisse Societatem Just lib. 20. When it came to the King her Brothers turn to Act his part of Royal Civility he carried the Prince with him to his most gorgeous and spacious Structure of the Escurial There he began That his Highness had done him favour beyond all compass of requital that he had Trusted the safe-guard of his Person with him and given him such an occasion in it to shew his Honour and Justice to part with him with as much Fidelity as his Highness desir'd or expected that there he was ready to perfect the Alliance so long in Treaty that he might call him Brother whom above all in the World he loved as a Friend The Prince Answered He had a better Heart to conceive then a Tongue to signifie how much he owed to his Majesty He hop'd the incomparable Infanta would thank him for the unparallel'd Courtesie shewn to him And because a drop of true meaning was better then a River of Words his Highness being encircled with the Noblest Witnesses of that Kingdom produced and Read his Proxy interpreted by the Earl of Bristol and committed to his Charge but first Attested to by the Hand of Secretary Cirica as a Notary of the greatest Place That this much pass'd it is certain Much more is Reported but it is contentious This Obligation intending to the Contract was thus dispatch'd in the Escurial of which let me say hereupon as Valerius of the Senate House of Rome lib. 6. Illam Curiam
the first Day shut up And Saturday following the 21st of that Month was but a day of Formality to the Parliament yet material to this History because the Lord Keeper had the greatest share about the Work of it who is my Scope and this Parliament no further then as he is concern'd in the Actions and Occurrencies of it On that day the King Sitting under his State in the Lords House incircled with the Senatorian Worthies of the higher and lower Order the Commons Presented Sir Tho. Crew Serjeant at Law for their Speaker As the Knights and Burgesses were Chosen for the publick Service out of the best of the Kingdom so this Gentleman was Chosen for this Place out of the best of them He was warm in the Care of Religion and a Chief among them that were popular in the Defence of it A great lover of the Laws of the Land and the Liberties of the People Of a stay'd Temper sound in Judgment ready in Language And though every Man it is suppos'd hath some equals in his good Parts he had few or no Superiors This was the Character which the Lord Keeper gave of him to the King whereupon he was pointed out to this Honorable Task Yet with all this Furnishment out of a Custom which Modesty had observ'd Sir Thomas Deprecated the Burthen as Moses did when the was to be sent to Pharoah O my Lord I am not Eloquent send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send Exod. 4.13 And he humbly besought the Royal Favour to Command a new and a better Choice for so weighty a Charge Whereupon the Lord Keeper going from his Seat to His Majesty and Conferring with Him upon his Knee after a short time returned to his Place and spake as followeth Mr. Speaker I Am Charg'd to deliver unto you that no Man is to be excus'd from this Service that can make so good an Excuse as you have done His Majesty doth observe that in you which Gorgias the Philosopher did in Plato Quod in Oratoribus irridendis ipse esse Orator summus videbatur That in Discoursing against Orators he shewed himself the greatest Orator of them all So fares it in this Appeal of yours unto the Throne of His Sacred Majesty Descendis ut Ascendas te ad sidera tollit humus By falling down in your own Conceipt you are mounted higher in the Opinion of all others By your own excusing to be a Speaker you shew what a Worthy Speaker you are like to be The Truth is His Majesty doth not only approve but highly Commend the Judgment of the House of Commons in your Election And Quod felix faustumque sit for an Omen and good luck to all the ensuing Proceedings of that Honorable Assembly he doth Crown this first Action of theirs with that Exivit verbum ex ore Regis that old Parliamentary Approbation Le Roy le Veult Then Sir Thomas Crew Bowing down to the Supream Pleasure which could not be declin'd offred up his first Fruits for about the time of half an Hour in a way between Remonstrance and Petition smoothly and submissively yet with that Freedom and Fair-Dealing as became the Trust committed to him He could not wish more Attention than he had from the King who heard him favorably to the end For the Dispatch of that Work presently the Lord Keeper went to His Majesty who Conferr'd together secretly that none else heard and after a quarter of an hour or better the L. Keeper return'd to his Place and answer'd the Speakers Peroration in His Majesties Name Which Answer will enough supply what was said by them both for it contains all the solid parts of Mr. Speakers Harangues Mr. Speaker 182. HIs Majesty hath heard your Speech with no more Patience then Approbation You have not cast up the same to any General Heads no more will I. And it were pity to pull down a Frame that peradventure cannot be set up again in so fair a Symmetry and Proportion Yet as the Mathematicians teach that in the most flowing and continued Line a Man may imagine continual Stops and Points so in this round and voluble Body of your Speech I may observe for Methods sake some distinct and articulated Members Somewhat you have said concerning your self somewhat concerning the King somewhat concerning Acts of Parliament whereof some are yet to be framed in the Womb and others ready to drop into their Graves somewhat of the Aberrations of former Assemblies somewhat of the Common Laws in general somewhat of the ordinary supply of Princes somewhat and very worthily for the increase of True Religion somewhat of the regaining of that of our Allies somewhat of preserving our own Estate and somewhat of the never sufficiently commended Reformation of Ireland These I observed for your material Heads The formal were those Four usual Petitions For Privileges to come unto the House For liberty of Speech when you are in the House For Access to His Majesty for the informing of the House And for a fair Interpretation of your Proceedings when you shall leave the House I shall from His Majesty make Answer to these Things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 step by step as they lie in order First For your self the King hath not only stretched out His Scepter but lifted up his Voice with Ahasuerus Quae est Petitiae tua dabitur tibi He hath granted all that you have desired and assureth you by me of His Special Grace and Favour from the beginning to the end of your present Employment Secondly Concerning the King it may not be doubted but Gods Blessing of us and our Blessing of God for his Royal Generation his quiet Coronation his peaceable Administration his Miraculous Preservation in this very Place and this our most comfortable Pledge of his future Succession ibunt in saecula shall flow unto Posterity and be the Hymns and Anthems of Ages to come Thirdly For those Statutes of Learning which were here framed 32 Henr. 8. which you call Parliamentum Doctum And those Statutes of Charity 39 of the late Queen which you Term Parliamentum Pium The Devout Parliament And those Statutes of Grace digested and prepared in the last Convention which His Majesty would have had been Gratiosum Parliamentum The Gracious Parliament And 〈◊〉 That large Pardon you expect this time which may make this Assembly Munificum Parliamentum The Bountiful Parliament The King gives you full Assurance of His Princely Resolution to do what shall be fitting and convenient to keep Life in the one and to bring Life to the other so as you do scitè obstetricari play the Midwives in them both as you ought to do Fourthly For the Abortion of some late Parliaments from the which His Majesty is most free a Parliament Nullity as you Tâ—rm it is a strange Chimaera a word of a Monstrous Compesition I never heard of the like in all my Life unless it be once in the new Creed Credo
their Clutches that by Arms or cunning Treaties do Usurp it But the way and Manner in Discovering the Couchant Enemy in preserving that handful of our Friends in laying down some Course of Diversion and the like you do most wisely and modestly refer to the proper Oracle His Majesties Wisdom and Deep Counsel Yea but I must tell you Mr. Speaker Vinci in amore turpissimum the King cannot endure to be outvyed by his People in Love and Courtesies What you in Duty do refer to him his Majesty in Confidence of your Wisdom and Loving Assections returns upon You. You say you would have the King betake him to sound Counsel You are his Counsel Consilium magnum his Main and Principal Counsel It is very true That since the begining of Harry the 8th the Kings of England have reserved those Matters to their own Conisance and Resolution But it is as true that from Harry the First until that Harry the Last our Kings have in every one of those Questions Repaired to and received Advice of their Parliaments Id verum quod primum Our Master means to follow the former Precedents His Majesty Commands me to yield unto you Hearty Thanks for your just Resentments of his Sufferings in this Cause and to tell you withall that because the main of the Expedition is to be born by the Persons and Purses of the People whom you do represent He is pleased to accept of the Advice of the House of Commons concerning the finding out of this secret Enemy the re-inforcing of our remaining Friends and by what kind of Diversion we shall begin the Enterprize And God the Holy Ghost be present with you in all your Consultations 184. In the Ninth Place That Well of Wood our Navy Royal wherewith you well observed this whole Island to be most strongly fortified we must all attribute the well Rigging and good Condition of it to the great Cost Care and Providence of his Sacred Majesty Hic tot sustinuit hic tanta negotia solus And yet as that Carver that beautified the Temple of Diana although he wrought upon other Mens Charges was suffered notwithstanding to engrave his own Name in some eminent Places of the Building So surely can it be denied by Envy it self but that most Noble Lord who is now a compleat Master in his Art and hath spent his seven years Studies in the Beautifying of the Navy should have a glorious Name enstamped thereupon though in a sitting Distance from his Lord and Master whose Princely Majesty A longe sequitur vestigia semper adorans Lastly For the Reformation of Ireland this I am bidden to deliver Pliny commending the Emperor Trajan to the utmost reach of Eloquence says That the most laudable and most remarkable Point in all his happy Government was That his Care was not consined to Italy alone but Instar solis like the Beams and Influence of the Sun it shed it self to many other Countries Surely his Majesty's Providence is of a large Extent for where the Sun scarce darteth his Beams his Majesty hath shined most gloriously by the Execution of wholsome Laws engrafting Civility and Planting true Religion And let this be our Soveraign's Comfort that though this poor Kingdom though never so reformed shall add very little to his Crown of Temporal Majesty here on Earth it will be an Occasion of an immense Access to his Crown of Glory hereafter in Heaven And now for your four Petitions Mr. Speaker his Majesty grants them all in one Word What Priviledge Liberty Access or fair Interpretation was ever yielded to the Members of that House his Majesty grants them to the Knights and Burgesses now assembled fully and freely without the least Jealousie Qualification or Suspicion I will only add a Memorandum out of Valerius Maximus to cut an even Thred between King and People Quid Cato sine Libertate Quid libertas sine Catone What is Wisdom without Liberty to shew it And what is Liberty without Wisdom to use it 185. Hitherto the King spake to the People by the Lord Keeper's Mouth and then the House rose All rejoyced that such gracious Concessions were returned to Mr. Speaker's Motions which were the Beam that held up the insequent Counsels till the Roof was covered with Agreement And it took the more that it was inlaid with such Mosaick Work not to the Eye but to the Ear by a perfect Orator It was the greatest and the knowingest Auditory that this Kingdom or perhaps the World afforded whose general Applause he carried away to as much as Modesty could desire Isocrates extolling the famous Acts of Evagoras before the full Celebrity of the Athenians exulted that Evagoras was approved by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose good Opinion was more honorable to him than all the Earths beside It was a happy sight at that time to see the Patriots of both Houses depart with Hands held up to God and with Smiles in their Looks that you might think they said one to another as the Princes of the Congregation and the Heads of the Thousands of Israel said to the Children of Reuben and Gad c. This day we perceive that the Lord is among us Jos 22.31 The Lord Keeper was summoned in three days after to a fresh Business and a larger Task than the former So fine a Tongue was sure not to want Work The Lords and Commons were brought into the Banqueting-House at White-Hall Feb. 24. where the Duke of Buckingham spake unto them leading them into the Maeanders of the Spanish Treatise and lead them out of them by the Clew of his own Diligence as he spared not to give himself the Honour of it For this time he was the Alcibiades that pleased the Common-wealth His Zeal and unremovable Pertinacy not to cope with the Spaniard in any Proposition unless the Prince Elector might be brought into his own Land again with an honorable Post liminium did enter inwardly and into the Marrow of all pitiful Affections But when he unfolded how strong the Prince was to the Principles of the right Faith and how attendant and dutious himself was to see that no Emissaries should poyson his Highness's Heart the general Suffrage was that the Prince had march'd valiantly like a Captain of Holy Truth and that the Duke deserved a great Name as a Lieutenant that maintained the Cause of God under him For it was ever easie to strike the good People of England half blind with the Dazling of Religion So much did the Parliament thirst for the Report of this Narration that it was imposed on the Lord Keeper to make it the next day All that might be done was that he took him to his Memory and to his Pen and drew up three Sheets of Paper upon it in a fast and scarce legible Hand He must proceed by the Pattern My Lord Duke's Oration was the only part of Speech he must follow and like a wise Man whatsoever he thought he must make
else the Treasurer had been rescued by the Power and Justice of his Royal Master His Majesty perceived that the Actions of this unfortunate Man rack'd with the strictest Enquiries were not Sins going over the Head scarce reaching to the Ankles and why should he suffer him to sink under the Waves of Envy Therefore he sent for the Lord Keeper to Greenwich and gave him his Sense That he would not make his Treasurer a publick Sacrifice Sir says the Lord Keeper I have attempted among my surest Friends to bring him off fairly All shrink and refuse me only the stout and prudent Lord Hollis adventured upon the Frowns of the Prince and Duke and gave his Reasons why Middlesex to him appeared an Innocent I were mad if for my part I should not wish him to escape this Tempest and be safe under the Harbor of Your Majesty's Clemency Suam quisque fortunam in consilio habet quando de alienâ deliberat Curt. lib. 5. When I deliberate upon him I think of my self 'T is his Fortune to day 't is mine to morrow The Arrow that hits him is within an Handful of me Yet Sir I must deal faithfully Your Son the Prince is the main Champion that encounters the Treasurer whom if you save you foil your Son For though Matters are carried by the whole Vote of Parliament and are driven on by the Duke yet they that walk in Westminster-Hall call this the Prince's Undertaking whom you will blast in his Bud to the Opinion of all your Subjects if you suffer not your old and perhaps innocent Servant to be pluck'd from the Sanctuary of Your Mercy Necessity must excuse you from Inconstancy or Cruelty In the Close of this Speech the Kings Reason was convinced that he must use this Counsel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Treasurer suffered the Dishonour or rather the Calamity of a Censure Himself was so comforted to his dying Hour as the engraved Posie spake his Thoughts in his great Chamber at Copt-Hall in Essex Quae venit immeritò paena dolenda venit And I spake with few when it was recent that were contented with it except the Members of the House who would not dislike their own Action 196. Popular Favor continued a while with the Duke and now he was St. George on Horseback let the Dragon take heed that stood in his Way The Earl of Middlesex was removed and he that presided over the great Accounts did now stand for a Cipher The Lord Keeper perceived his turn was next although he wanted not fair Words and fair Semblance from the Contriver But an Ambush is more dangerous than a pitch'd Battel because it is hid unless the Leader look about him in his March and search every Hedge by Vant-curriers as he did A vigilant Man will not sleep with both Eyes when he suspects Danger Cauto circumspectu vita quae variis casibus subjacet est munienda Apul. instam lib. 11. The Keeper knew he had deserved no ill yet he trusted not to that for he knew likewise how a Judge that hears many Causes must condemn many and offend many And if Justice should shrink in to decline Offences what were it so like unto as to one in the Fable that would feed upon nothing but Spoon-meat because he would not wear out his Teeth He was not ignorant of the laudable or at least the durable Custom of the Commons to countenance all Prosecutors and to file the Medly of all Complaints Therefore this Prometheus kept a careful Watch to repulse Embroilments as much as he could for though he had a sound Bark yet none but a phrantick Pilate would be willing to be toss'd in a Storm And he had been an ill Keeper if he had not been wary to keep himself to which I may fitly apply the Orators Words Philip 12. Qui mulâ—â—rum Custodem se profitetur eum sapientes sui primum capitis aiunt Custodem esse oportere He had made the Prince his fast Friend before who was so ingenious that when he had promised Fidelity there was no fear that he would start chiefly because he sought to lay hold on his Highness upon no other Conditions than to mortifie those spiteful accusations if any such hapned with his Frown that durst not stand the Breath of Truth Concerning the Duke he was not so silly to look any longer upon himself as growing on the former Root of his Favour yet he was not so rude to expostulate with him according to the Merit of his Unkindness and provoke him further but as it occurs Cab. P. 80. He tells his Lordship That Suspicions of his Displeasure transported him not a Jot further than to look about him how to defend himself that he begg'd Assurance of his Grace's former Love yet not in the least desire to crave the Patronage of any corrupt or unjust act of his that should be objected against him in Parliament nor to take Refuge to him in any Cause or Clamor otherwise than according to Justice and fair Proceeding A sufficient Number of other Friends were made already to him by his Wisdom and Deservings whom he never requested as he had no need of it to make a Side for him but to be intentive to disclose such Winding Insinuations which are apt to twine about some weak Understandings This Forecast made him stand unmoveable and unaffrighted when Petitions and Remonstrances of Perdue-Causes were entred against him They came about him like Bees and were extinct like Fire among the Thorns And what were they that made a Noise with their Grievances Itane nihil fortunam puduit si minus accusatae innocentiae at accusantium wilitatis Boeth de consol 'T is a shame that Innocency should be accused but what Remedy shall it have against base and beggerly Accusers against the very Kennel of the Fleet and other Goals against such whose Suits would admit of no good Order and their Forwardness of no bad I knew a Plaintif and Desendant Morgan and Bouglar that complained one as much as the other of the same Decree to the Parliament and at the Hearing of the Cause one of the Counsel protested that Two hundred and twelve Commissions References and Orders had past upon it After a while a Bundle of those frivolous Objections being read and examined were cast out of Doors and the House in the Afternoon being put into a general Committee Seven and thirty of those Paper-Kites slew away that same day and were never heard of more Some of the Members would have repaired the Lord Keeper and asked him what he would have done to his Adversaries Nothing says he for by this time they have all fretted themselves into Patience and some of them perhaps into Repentance Which proved even so For many of them came privily to be admitted to his Favour condemned their own scandalous Petitions and laid it upon a great Name that they were encouraged to bring them in whom he
sit and apt Clerk to be preferred to the same Hence it plainly appears by the said Covenant and Proviso that the said Committees as to the Advouson of the Church of Sutton belonging to the said Ward are but Lessees in Trust to present such a Clerk to the same as the King or the Master and Council of the Court of Wards for the King shall Name or Appoint Then it is Pregnant That the Clerk being refused whom the Lady offered to the Rectory without the Kings Consent c. no Injustice is offered 199. He rejoyns to the Second That the said Church being become Void the Lord Keeper by Virtue of his Place as time out of mind hath been used presented Dr. Grant the Kings Chaplain in his Majesties Name The Master of the Wards presented likewise Dr. Wilson in the Kings Name to the same Church But Dr. Grant was first presented admitted and Dr. Wilson gave way After both these the Committees present their Clerk in their own Name and pray a Quare Impedu to remove the Kings Clerk and to have their own Clerk admitted in his room This Quare Impedit by the Kings Commandment to the Lord Keeper was denied them For which much is alledged Lands in Question in Chancery were Decreed by the Lord Ellsmore to Peacock in Equity against Revell who had a good Title in Law Revell would have had an Original Writ of Assise against Peacock to have recover'd the Lands from him by Law The Writ was denied him by the Lord Ellsmore If Revell would have made a Lease or a Feoffment to any Friend in trust which Friend would have sued for an Original Writ to have recover'd the Land the Writ might as well be denied to him as to Revell himself So the Master of the Wards presented a Clerk to the Church of Sutton in the Kings Name before the Lord Darcy presented If that Clerk would have sued for a Quare Impedit in the Kings Name the Lord Keeper by the Kings Appointment might have denied the Writ And by the same Reason may he in like manner deny the Writ to the Lady Darcy who as to the Advouson is but a Lessee in trust to present such a Clerk as the Master of the Wards for the King shall name As by the Covenant and Proviso in the Lease doth appear If Lands in Question in the Chancery be by Order of the Court by both Parties conveyed to one of the Six Clerks in trust that he shall convey the same as the Court shall Order upon the hearing of the Cause who refuseth to convey the Land according to the trust and prayeth a Writ of Assise to recover the Land from him to whom the Court hath order'd the same for the trust appears as plainly to the Court as in the Case of a Decree This Writ may be denied So the Lady Darcy being a Lessee of the Advouson in trust to present such a Clerk as the King or the Court of Wards shall name or allow of if she will present a Clerk of her own contrary to the trust reposed in her and sue for a Quare Impedit to remove the Clerk presented by the King and to put in her own choice this Writ by the Kings Appointment may be denied her for the trust appears of Record So if Bonds be taken of a Defendant in Chancery in the Name of a Master of the Chancery with Condition to perform the Order or Decree of the Court The Court Decrees Money to be paid by the Defendant to the Plaintiff at a Day who pays the same the next Day after which the Plaintiff accepts and the Court allows of If the Master of Chancery will pray an Original Writ of Debt upon this Bond to recover the Money to his own use this Writ may be denied him The Lord Ellsmore presented a Clerk in the Kings Name Ratione Minoris AEtatis The Lady Mordant pretended Title to present and having four Feoffees in trust of the Mannor or Lands to which the Advouson did belong as she pretended would have had four Writs of Quare Impedit against the Kings Clerk in the Names of her four Feoffees severally The Lord Ellsmore denied them all There are many more Precedents to be shewed in like Cases where Original Writs have been denied 200. Yet since it is to be done with great Tenderness and Discretion and seldom or never but when it appears that one Injury must be prevented necessarily with another he declares Thirdly That the Lady Darcy's Proceedings thrust in so dangerously between two great Courts that ordinary Justice could not but be denied her for fear an extraordinary Difference should be raised between the said Courts being thus laid open When the Lord Ellsmore was Lord Chancellor and Robert Earl of Salisbury Master of the Wards there fell out a Contestation between these two Potent Lords whose Right it was to present to the Wards Livings which were under Value of 20 l. in the First-Fruit-Office And the Contention grew so insoluble that King James with all his Pacificous Wisdom could not readily light upon a way to reconcile it Yet at the last it was compounded thus That which soever of those two Officers should first present to such a Benefice his Presentation should be Valid for the Possession of the Living If both Presentations should come together to the Bishop which perhaps would not happen in an Age then there was Casus pro amico on the Bishop's behalf as the Canonists speak This Agreement had continued amicably to that very Day and was then in danger to be infring'd For if a Suit had commenced as the Lady desired the Lord Keeper could not avoid to charge the Court of Wards with Fraudulency in passing away the Donations of Livings in the Compositions for Wards which was a pre-occupating or rather plain deluding of the Patronage which was in the Lord Keeper by the Agreement Wherefore he waves the strong and full defence he had made upon the stopping of an Original Writ and deprecates all offence by that Maxim of the Law which admits of a mischief rather than an inconvenience Which was as much as to say That he thought it a far less Evil to do the Lady the probability of an Injury in her own sense than to suffer those two Courts to clash together again and fall into a new Dispute about their Jurisdiction which might have produc'd a publick inconvenience which is most carefully to be avoided This Plea satisfied the House and cleared him in the general Opinion or as some Interpreted excus'd him rather for his other good Parts then absolutely cleared in this intricate Point as Livie li. 1. says Horatius escaped Sentence by the Voice of the people because they loved his Person rather then lik'd the Fact upon which he was question'd Absolveruntque admiratione magis virtutis quam jure Causae Yet it goes strongly to justifie the Lord Keeper in the Fact that all the Lawyers in the House did unanimously
gave his Grace the Faith of a deep Protestation that he came purposely to prevent more Harm and to bring him out of that Sorrow into the Light of the King's Favour That he verily believed God's directing Hand was in it to stir up his Grace to advance him to those Honours which he possess'd to do him Service at this Pinch of Extremity He besought his Grace to make haste for Windsor and to shew himself to his Majesty before Supper was ended to deport himself with all amiable Addresses not to stir from his Person Night nor Day For the Danger was that some would thrust themselves in to push on his Majesty to break utterly with the Parliament and the next Degree of their Hope was upon that Dissolution to see his Grace committed to the Tower and then God knows what would follow The Keeper adjured his Lordship to lock up this in his own Breast which was imparted as charily to him as under the Seal of Secrecy but to be quick and Judicious in the Prevention more was not to be said because loss of time might loose all The Duke parted with many Thanks and lingred not but came to Windsor before he was look'd for Though he suspected not so much Evil yet he knew the Danger might be the worse for being contemned Nihil tuto in hoste despicitur Quem spreveris valentio rem negligent iâ facies Curt. lib. 6. 903. No doubt but all this was disclos'd to the Prince 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Eurip. in Oenomao we conjecture at unevident things by that which is evident The Duke stirr'd not from Windsor but waited on his Majesty and was inseparable as his shadow The Prince was early at the Lords House before their Lordships began to sit on Munday Morning His business was with the Lord Keeper whom he took aside into a Lobby and protested how well it pleas'd him that he had given Buckingham faithful warning for his safety And you says his Highness that have gone thus far may receive greater Thanks of us both if you will spread open this black contrivance which hath lost him the Good Opinion of my Father and my self am in little better Condition Sir says the Lord Keeper Let my Soul suffer for falshood if I know any more than that some in the Spanish Embassador's House have been preparing mischief and infused it about four days since into his Majesty But the Curtain of Privacy is drawn before the Picture that I cannot guess at the Colours Well my Lord says the Prince I expected better Service from you for if that be the Picture-Drawers shop no Counselior in this Kingdom is better acquainted then your self with the Works and the Workmen I might have been says the Keeper and I am pang'd like a Womâ—n in Travail till I know what mishapen Creature they are Drawing But your Highness and my Lord Duke have made it a Crime to send unto that House and they are afraid to do it who are commanded from his Majesty It is a Month since I have forbidden the Servants of that Family to come at me But says the Prince I will make that Passage open to you again without Offence and Enterprise any way to bring us out of this Wood wherein we are lost Only before we part keep not from me how you came to know or imagin that the Spanish Agents have Charged Buckingham to my Father with High Misdemeanors or perhaps Disloyalty I would hear you to that Point that I may compare it with other Parcels of my Intelligence Sir says the Keeper I will go on directly with you Another perhaps would Blush when I tell you with what Heifer I Plow but knowing mine Innocency the worst that can happen is to expose my self to be Laugh'd at Your Highness hath often seen the Secretary Don Francisco Carondelet He loves me because he is a Scholar for he is Arch-Deacon of Cambray And sometimes we are pleasant together for he is a Wallcon by Birth and not a Castilian I have discover'd him to be a Wanton and a Servant to some of our English Beauties but above all to one of that gentle Craft in Mark-Lane A Wit she is and one that must be Courted with News and Occurrences at home and abroad as well as with Gifts I have a Friend that hath brib'd her in my Name to send me a faithful conveyance of such Tidings as her Paramour Carondelet brings to her All that I instructed the Duke in came out of her Chamber And she hath well earn'd a piece of Plate or two from me and shall not be unrecompenced for this Service about which your Highness doth use me if the Drab can help me in it Truly Sir this is my Dark Lahthorn and I am not asham'd to inquire of a Dalilah to Resolve a Riddle for in my Studies of Dlvinity I have glean'd up this Maxim Licet uti alieno peccato though the Devil make her a Sinner I may make good use of her Sin Yea says the Prince Merrily do you deal in such Ware ' In good Faith Sir says the Keeper I never saw her Face So this Conference Ended 204. The Lord Keeper took his Place in the Lords House to moderate Affairs as Speaker But all the while his Fancy was Whistling to another Tune how he might play his Game discreetly He held the Prince his Cards and would not for his Life that he should loose He had well consider'd and brought the Case to this Touch stone of Judgment that he should never know how the whole Scene had been Acted but by Secretary Francisco He had requested him to refrain his house above the whole space of a Month. If he sent for him on even Terms nothing would run freely from him Well fare a good Invention or a good Genius that prompted him For a knack came into his Head to fetch Francisco to him without any invitation as if a Conjurer had brought him in a Whirl-wind So he becken'd to a Servant and bad him that his Pursivant Captain Toothbie should wait him without fail as soon as the House was up The Pursivant at that hour took punctual Directions from him to seize upon an English Mass-Priest lodg'd in Drury â—me Named and Describ'd exactly for he had the Art to fetch such a Fowl or twain out of the Coope at an hours warning to receive him without any Noise into his Custody and upon Entreaty as that and proffer of Mony would not be wanting to carry him to his own House till further Order and not to the common Goal The Priest was apprehended and laid up The Man that was dearer to Francisco which the Lord Keeper know then his own Confessor or any of that Coat which made him wild when he heard of the mischance for he knew the Law and how hard it would be to save his Life if he came to be Tried at the Sessions the Parliament then Sitting He was in a fort banish'd from the
Keepers House and he a poor Stranger knew not to whom else to turn him to implore Mercy in his Friends behalf Howsoever he saw it was no time to observe the Niceness of Modesty but sent his Request to the Lord Keeper to be admitted that day though he should never see his Face again With a seeming unwillingness it was allowed him keeping a cautious limit not to make his Visit till Eleven of the Clock that Night and by the back door of the Garden where a Servant should receive him He came at his hour and being brought into a Gallery fell into an abrupt Exordium That nothing but a matter as dear unto him as his Life should have forced him to break Rule to Offend his Lordship with his Presence So he bewailed the disaster of his Confrere's Attachment and most passionately implor'd his Lordship to compass him Enlargment And would you have me says the Keeper run such a hazard to set a Priest at Liberty a Dead Man by our Statutes when the Eye of the Parliament is so vigilant upon the breach of Justice especially in this kind to the sadding of our Godly Men who detest them that creep hither out of Seminaries above all Malefactors because they come with an intent to pervert them who have lived in the Bosom of our Church My Lord says Francisco and accented his Words with passionate Gesture let not the dread of this Parliament trouble you I can tell you if you have not heard it that it is upon Expiration By this hint the Keeper was got into the Out-Works of the Project and play'd so Artificially with the Secretary that he took the Main Fortress Pick'd out of him at that time the Heads of all the Articles in the Paper with all Reasons Circumstances distorted Proofs and Expositions to confirm them The Copy of the main Paper scratched in some places with Don Carlo Colonna's Hand for the Keeper knew his Writing was not brought him till four Nights after He had enough of their Brewing at the first running for he kept Don Carendelet till two of the Clock in the Morning and let him not part till he had squeez'd him dry But to gratifie his Information he call'd for the Pursivant a Reserve at Hand and bad him immediately Release the Priest with Caution that he should cross the Seas that Day or the next that he might not be produced to Confront if the matter should come to Light to be question'd So the Lord Keeper and Don Francisco parted with much shew of Love each having obtain'd that which they met for Some that will make us believe that they are very scrupulous and Conscientious will snuff at somewhat related as if it were not plain dealing but it is as good for it is harmless Policy 't is profitable and Pleasant Et ista quidem sine noxâ decipiunt Quo modo praestigiatorum acetabula calculi in quibus me fallacia ipsa delectat They that do Feats with slight of hand delude us and please us with their cunning says Seneca So do men employ'd for the Publick their Motions may be like the Suns oblique but regular Magistratus tentat non decipit A Magistrate may use by-ways and pretences to prove others not to deceive them As Solomon did in the Case of the two Harlots and the Child which both challeng'd to be their own 205. The Story lacks yet the latter Part the Lord Keeper after the Good Night given to Francisco retired to his own Thoughts and poured the whole Conserence out of his Memory into his Papers as if Francisco had stood by to dictate every Line He was so well gifted in a most happy Memory that he forgat nothing but what he had a mind to forget He digested the severals into a Method and confected an Antidote for every Poyson Christal-clear Answers well weighed in Judgment to Gag the Spanish ill Framed Jealousies and as demulcing as shortness of time would permit to make all sweet with the Old King He saw no Sleep that Night with his Eyes nor stirr'd out of the Room till about seven in the Morning he had trimm'd up a fair Copy of all the Proceedings which he presented to the Prince in St. James's and told him he had the Viper and her Brood in a Box. His Highness Read the Charges and admir'd at the virulency with the Anti-scripts of the Keeper which were much commended So the Coach was called to be made ready for VVindsor Nay Sir says the Lord Keeper let your Highness be pleas'd to take my Petition along with you Where is it says the Prince ' In my Mouth says He for I humbly beg that you will conceal me in all that I have done in this Matter and as you tender my Life to keep the knowledge of my share in this from your Father Vetus Disciplina regum silentium vitae periculo sanxerat Curtius is an Old Rule I have committed two great Crimes in a Sworn Counsellor First To search into the King's Counsels which he would not should be open'd Secondly When I had found them out to discover them though to your Highness The Prince thought there could be no hurt in that which was good for all perties yet gave him assurance he should not be drawn out of the Tiring House to the open Stage His Highness came very chearful to Windsor and calling Buckingham aside reach'd him the Papers with the counterfeit Brats in one Column and the Apology in the other Column which dasht them against the Wall The Writing was a Servants whose hand was not known at Court But the Duke lik'd the whole Bulk extreamly and most humbly thank'd the Prince that his Case was enwoven with his Highness and their double Vindication put into one Frame And besought to know what Vitruvius had compacted a Piece of Architecture of such concinnity in so short a time but could not obtein it The Prince and Duke made no longer preparation but forthwith desir'd a private hearing with the King and with a modest and comfortable confidence gave up the Schedule to his Majesty's most Excellent Consideration He Read all deliberately and at many stops said 't was well very well and an enlivening Spirit Danced in his Eye Then he drew his Son and Buckingham near to him and Embraced them protesting that it sorrowed him much that he had aggrieved them with a Jealousie somented by no better then Traytors Assur'd them the Exhalations were dispers'd and their Innocency shin'd as Bright as at Noon Day And that you may know says his Majesty How little you shall pay me for Reconciliation I ask no more but to tell me who is your Ingeneer that struck these Sparks out of the Flint and lighted the Candle to find the Groat that was lost The Prince stood Mute The Duke avowed he knew not the Author Well says the King I have a good Nostril and will Answer mine own Question my Keeper had the main Finger in it I
Commanders Or if he came to be tried in the Furnace of the next Session of Parliament he had need to make the Refiners to be his Friends 210. Here steps in Dr. Preston a good Crow to smell Carion and brought Conditions with him to make his Grace malleable upon the great Anvil and never break This Politick Man that he might feel the Pulse of the Court had preferr'd himself to be Chaplain to the Prince and wanted not the Intelligence of all dark Mysteries through the Scotch especially of his Highness's Bedchamber These gave him countenance more than others because he prosecuted the Endeavours of their Countrymen Knox. To the Duke he repairs And be assured he had more Skill than boisterously to propound to him the Extirpation of the Bishops remembring what King James had said in the Conference at Hampton-Court Anno 1. No Bishop No King Therefore he began to dig further off and to heave at the Dissolution of Cathedral Churches with their Deans and Chapters the Seminary from whence the ablest Scholars were removed to Bishopricks At his Audience with the Duke he told him He was sorry his Grace's Actions were not so well interpreted abroad as Godly Men thought they deserved That such Murmurings as were but Vapours in common Talk might prove to be Tempests when a Parliament met That his safest way was to Anchor himself upon the Love of the People And let him perswade himself he should not sail to be Master of that Atchievement if he would profess himself not among those that are Protestants at large and never look inward to the Center of Religion but become a warm and zealous Christian that would employ his best help strenuously to lop off from this half-reformed Church the superfluous Branches of Romish Superstition that much disfigured it Then he named the Quire-Service of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches with the Appennages which were maintained with vast Wealth and Lands of excessive Commodity to feed fat lazy and unprofitable Drones And yet all that Chanting and Pomp hindred the Heavenly Power and Simplicity of Prayer And furthered not the Preaching of the Gospel And now says he let your Grace observe all the ensuing Emoluments if you will lean to this Counsel God's Glory shall be better set forth that 's ever the Quail-Pipe to bring Worldings into the Snares of Sacrilege The Lands of those Chapters escheating to the Crown by the Dissolution of their Foundations will pay the King's Debts Your Grace hath many Alliances of Kindred all sucking from you and the Milk of those Breasts will serve them all and nourish them up to great Growth with the best Seats in the Nation Lastly Your Grace shall not only surmount Envy but turn the Darling of the Commonwealth and be reverenced by the best Operators in Parliament as a Father of a Family And if a Crum stick in the Throat of any considerable Man that attempts to make a contrary part it will be easie to wash it down with Mannors Woods Royalties Tythes c. the large Provent of those Superstitious Plantations Thus far the Doctor and to these Heads as the Duke in a good Mind reveal'd it The most crafty and clawing Piece of all was That the Destruction of these Sacred Foundations would make a Booty for a Number of Gentlemen And as the Greeks say proverbially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When a great Oak falls every Neighbour may scuffle for a Faggot You may be sure the Duke sent this Doctor away with great Thanks and bad him watch the best times of leisure and come to him often who did not lose the Privilege of that Liberty but thrust into his Bedchamber at least thrice a Week with a sly Audacity The Lord Keeper heard of it and wondred what occasion'd their private and frequent Meetings Nor could he knock off the Bar of the Secret with his Golden Hammer till it was revealed to him by some of the nearest about his Majesty For the Duke had cast forth the Project in a dark imperfect Form before the King and the King muffling his true Face that it could not be seen heard him with a dissembled Patience because he was pleas'd to have him nibble upon this Bait that he might divert the Yonker as long as he could from forcing him to undertake a War which was a violent Caustick that seared up the Comfort of his Majesties Heart All this was conveyed to the Lord Keeper and being feeble and scarce upon his Legs again it wrought upon his sick Spirits with great Anxiety He was sure his Majesty had no Stomach to devour such an unsanctified Morsel Yet against that assurance he objected to himself That the Duke was wont to overturn all Obstacles that stood in his way And that the Imperial Eagle of Necessity would stoop to any Prey Then he took Chear again that he had never Noted in the Lord Duke a Displicency against the Prosperity of the Church Again his Comfort was rebated that Self-Preservation will make a Saint a Libertine and that Nice Points of Religion are not usually admitted to give Law against it Howsoever he resolv'd to hazard all to crush this Cockatrice in the Egg. Causa jubet superes mâ—lior sperare secundos He that stickles for Gods Cause sails by the Cape of Good Hope 211. At the first Onset he had small Encouragement For he came to Wallingford-House to break with the Duke upon this matter who was then shut up with Dr. Preston in close Consultation where the Great Seal and the Keeper of it waited two Hours in the Anti-Camera and was sent Home without the Civility of Admission Next Day he got Speech with Dr. Preston by Friends employ'd to bring him to Westminster And after much Pro and Con in their Discourse supposing the want of Preserment had disgusted the Doctor he offer'd to him if he would busie himself no more in contriving the Ruine of the Church that he would the next Day resign the Deanery of Westminster to him But the wily Doctor did not believe him For he came to cheat and not to be cheated So they parted unkindly The Lord Keeper saw now that this Nail was driven in far Yet he did not despair to pluck it out with his Wit And thus he went into the Adventure He obtain'd an Opportune Conference with the Duke and in the Defence of the Church he could never be taken unprovided He pray'd his Grace to believe That no Man wish'd his Safety more cordially than himself by whose Hand he was lifted up to that Place of Pre-eminence wherein he sate Therefore it was his Duty to admonish him timely that he was building that Safety upon hollow Ground He had spoken with Preston who had offer'd his Grace flitten Milk out of which he should churn nothing There were other ways to level Envy than by offending God And if he meant to gather Moneys for War let him Wage it with the Prayers of the Clergy and not with their
Wherein the Lord Keeper interceded with the Duke to the incurring a mighty Anger as may be seen by the Letters of Decem. 24. and Jan. 4. Cab. p. 99. If Threatings had been mortal Shot he had Perisht for he never had such a Chiding before but he kept his Ground because he held the fairer side of the Quarrel Dr. Meriton the Dean of York was lately Dead and much Deplor'd For he was an Ornament to the Church My Lord Duke entreated by great ones named a Successor that had no Seasoning or Tast of Matter in him one Dr. Scot But a Doctor Inter Doctores Bullatos for he never stood in the Commencement to approve himself beside too many Faults to be ript up I have known a Scholar in Cambridge so bad a Rider that no Man for Love or Price would furnish him with a Horse I would have thought no Man would have furnisht such a Scholar as this with a Deanery chiefly of York It came about strangely Scot was a Prodigal Gamster and had lost upon the Ticket to a Noble Person far more then he was worth Which Debt his Creditor knew not how to recover but by Thrusting him aided with my Lord Dukes Power into this Rich Preferment The Casuists among all the Species of Simony never Dream'd of this which may be called Simonia Aleatoria when a Gamester is Installed into a goodly Dignity to make him capable to pay the Scores of that which he had lost with a bad Hand And yet the Man Died in the Kings-Bench and was not Solvent The Lord Keeper intending to put of Dr. Scot from this place besought for the remove of those most worthy Divines Dr. White or Dr. Hall or to Collate it upon Dr. Warner the most Charitable and very Prudent Bishop of Rochester But he was so terrified for giving this good Counsel that he writes now he knew his Graces Resolution he would alter his Opinion and would be careful in giving the least Cause of Jealousie in that kind again Yet it is a received Maxime Defuturos eos qui suaderent si suasisse sit periculum Curt. l. 3. Certainly with others this might work to his Esteem but nothing to his Prejudice And I dare confidently avouch what I knowingly speak that I may use the Words of my industrious Friend Mr. T. F. in his Church History That the Solicitation for Dr. Theodore Price about Two Months after was not the first motive of a Breach between the Keeper and the Duke the day-light clears that without dusky conjectures no nor any Process to more unkindness then was before which was indeed grown too high The Case is quickly Unfolded Dr. Price was Country Man Kinsman and great Acquaintance of the Lord Keepers By whose procurement he was sent a Commissioner into Ireland two years before with Mr. Justice Jones Sir T. Crew Sir James Perrot and others to rectifie Grievances in Church and Civil State that were complain'd In Executing which Commission he came of with Praise and with Encouragement from His Majesty that he should not fail of Recompence for his Well-doing Much about the time that the Prince return'd out of Spain the Bishoprick of Asaph soll void the County of Merioneth where Dr. Price was Born being in the Diocess The Lord Keeper attempted to get that Bishoprick for Dr. Price But the Prince since the time that by his Patent he was styled Prince of Wales had Claimed the Bishopricks of that Principality for his own Chaplains So Dr. Melburn and Dr. Carlton were preferr'd to St. Davids and Landaff And Asaph was now Conferr'd upon Dr. Hanmer his Highness's Chaplain that well deserv'd it A little before King James's Death Dr. Hampton Primate of Armach as stout a Prelate and as good a Governor as the See had ever enjoy'd Died in a good old Age. Whereupon the Keeper interposed for Dr. Price to Succeed him But the Eminent Learning of Dr. Usher for who could match him all in all in Europe carried it from his Rival Dr. Price was very Rational and a Divine among those of the first Note according to the small skill of my Perceivance And his Hearers did testifie as much that were present at his Latin Sermon and his Lectures pro gradu in Oxford But because he had never Preach'd so much as one Sermon before the King and had left to do his calling in the Pulpit for many years it would not be admitted that he should Ascend to the Primacy of Armach no nor so much as succeed Dr. Usher in the Bishoprick of Meth. To which Objection his Kinsman that stickled for his Preferment could give no good Answer and drew of with so much ease upon it that the Reverend Dr. Usher had no cause to Regret at the Lord Keeper for an Adversary Neither did Dr. Price ever shew him Love after that day and the Church of England then or sooner lost the Doctors Heart 214. It is certain that all Grants at the Court went with the Current of my Lord Dukes Favour None had Power to oppose it nor the King the Will For he Rul'd all his Majesties Designs I may not say his Affections Yet the L. Keeper declin'd him sometimes in the Dispatches of his Office upon great and just Cause Whereupon the King would say in his pleasant Manners That he was a stout Man that durst do more than himself For since his Highness's return out of Spain if any Offices were procur'd in State of Reversion or any Advouzons of Church Dignities he interpos'd and stopt the Patents as Injurious to the Prince to whose Donation they ought to belong in just time and preserv'd them for him that all such Rewards might come entire and undefloured to his Patronage Wherein his Highness maintain'd his Stiffness for that foresight did procure that his own Beneficence should be unprevented And he carried that Respect to the Dukes Honour nay to his Safety for notice was taken of it that he would not admit his Messages in the Hearing of Causes no not when his chief Servants attended openly in Court to Countenance those Messages to carry him a-wry and to oppress the Poorest and whose Faces he had never seen with the least wrong Judicii tenax suit neque aliis potiùs quà m sibi credidit as Capitolinus makes it a good Note of Maximus He would believe his own Judgment and his own Ears what they heard out of Depositions and not the Representation of his best Friends that came from partial Suggestions Such Demands as are too heavy to ascend let them fall down in pieces or they will break him at the last that gives them his Hand to lift them up In this only he would not stoop to his Grace but pleas'd himself that he did displease him And being threatned his best Mitigation was That perhaps it was not safe for him to deny so great a Lord yet it was safest for his Lordship to be Denied It was well return'd For no Arrand was so privily conveyed
it was not set off with much Ceremony to quicken Devotition yet it wanted neither a stamp of Reverence nor the metal of Godliness Yet he would be careful in Launching out so far in Curiosity to give no Scandal to Catholicks whose Jealousie might perhaps suspect him as if he thought it lawful to use both ours and the Church of Rome's Communion Therefore he made suit to be placed where none could perceive him and that an Interpreter of the Liturgy might assist him to turn the Book and to make right Answers to such Questions as fell by the way into his Animadversions None more forward then the Lord Keper to meet the Abbat in this Request Veritas oculatos testes non refermidat The Abbat kept his hour to come to Church upon that High Feast and a Place was well fancied aloft with a Latice and Curtains to conceal him Mr. William Beswell like Philip Riding with the Treasurer of Queen Candace in the same Chariot sate with him directing him in the Process of all the Sacred Offices perform'd and made clear Explanation to all his scruples The Church Work of that ever Blessed day fell to the Lord Keeper to perform it but in the place of the Dean of that Collegiate Church He sung the Service Preach'd the Sermon Consecrated the Lords Table and being assisted with some of the Prebendaries distributed the Elements of the Holy Communion to a great multitude meekly kneeling upon their knees Four hours and better were spent that morning before the Congregation was dismiss'd with the Episcopal Blessing The Abbat was entreated to be a Guest at the Dinner provided in the College-Hall where all the Members of that Incorporation Feasted together even to the Eleemosynaries call'd the Beads-men of the Foundation no distinction being made but high and low Eating their Meat with gladness together upon the occasion of our Saviours Nativity that it might not be forgotten that the poor Shepherds were admitted to Worship the Babe in the Manger as well as the Potentates of the East who brought Rich Presents to offer up at the shrine of his Cradle All having had their comfort both in Spiritual and Bodily Repast the Master of the Feast and the Abbat with some few beside retired into a Gallery The good Abbat presently shew'd that he was Bred up in the Franco-Gallican Liberty of Speech and without further Proem defies the English that were Roasted in the Abbies of France for lying Varlets above all others that ever he met We have none of their good word I am sure says the Keeper but what is it that doth empassion you for the present against them That I shall calmly tell your Lordship says the Abbat I have been long inquisitive what outward Face of God's Worship was retein'd in your Church of England What Decorums were kept in the external Communion of your Assemblies St. Paul did Rejoyce to behold good Order among the Colossians as well as to hear of the stedfastness of their Faith cap. 2.5 Therefore waving Polemical Points of Doctrine I demanded after those things that lay open to the view and pertain'd to the Exterior Visage of the House of God And that my Intelligence might not return by broken Merchants but through the best Hands I consulted with none but English in the Affairs of their own home and with none but such as had taken the Scapular or Habit of some Sacred Order upon them in Affairs of Religion But Jesu how they have deceiv'd me What an Idea of Deformity Limm'd in their own Brain have they hung up before me They told me of no composed Office of Prayer used in all these Churches by Authority as I have found it this day but of extemporary Bablings They traduc'd your Pulpits as if they were not possest by Men that be Ordein'd by imposition of Hands but that Shop-keepers and the Scum of the people Usurp that Place in course one after another as they presum'd themselves to be Gifted Above all they turn'd their Reproaches against your behaviour at the Sacrament describing it as a prodigious Monster of Profaneness That your Tables being furnish'd with Meats and Drinks you took the Scraps and Rellicks of your Bread and Cups and call upon one another to remember the Passion of our Lord Jesus All this I perceive is infernally false And though I deplore your Schism from the Catholick Church yet I should bear false Witness if I did not confess that your Decency which I discern'd at that Holy Duty was very allowable in the Consecrator and Receivers 218. My Brother Abbat says the Lord Keeper with a Smile I hope you will think the better of the Religion since on Christ's good Day your own Eyes have made this Observation among us The better of the Religion says the Abbat taking the Words to relate to the Reformed of France nay taking all together which I have seen among you and he brought it out with Acrimony of Voice and Gesture I will lose my Head if you and our Hugenots are of one Religion I protest Sir says the Keeper you divide us without Cause For the Harmony of Protestant Confessions divulg'd to all the World do manifest our Consonancy in Faith and Doctrine And for diversity in outward Administrations it is a Note as Old as Irenaeus which will justifie us from a Rupture that variety of Ceremonies in several Churches the Foundation being preserv'd doth commend the Unity of Faith I allow what Irenaeus writes says the Abbat for we our selves use not the same Offices and Breviares in all Places But why do not the Hugonots at Charenton and in other Districts follow your Example Because says the Lord Keeper no part of your Kingdom but is under the Jurisdiction of a Diocesan Bishop and I know you will not suffer them to set up another Bishop in the Precincts of that Territory where one is establish'd before that would savour of Schism in earnest And where they have no means to maintain Gods Worship with costly Charge and where they want the Authority of a Bishop among them the people will arrogate the greatest share in Government so that in many things you must excuse them because the Hand of constraint is upon them But what constreins them says the Abbat that they do not Solemnize the Anniversary Feast of Christ's Nativity as you do Nay as we do for it is for no better Reason then because they would be unlike to us in every thing Do you say this upon certainty says the Keeper or call me Poultron if I feign it says the other In good troth says the Keeper you tell me News I was ever as Tully writes of himself to Atticus in Curiositate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to search narrowly into Foreign Churches and I did never suspect that our Brethren that live with you were deficient in that Duty For the Churches of the Low-Countries of Heidelberg Helvetia Flassia Breme and others do observe a yearly Day to the
long time never enjoy'd a calm Sea He was made for such a Tryal which was sanctified by Gospel-Promises giving unto just Men assurance of vigour to endure them Every one pittieth himself everyone covets Ease and Prosperity which is more Childish than Manly And a Design that is commonly mistaken Adversity out of doubt is best for us all because we would not carve it out to our selves but God chooseth it for us and he chooseth better for us than we can for ourselves By his Providence some Mens Sorrows are greater than others and few had a deeper Cup to drink than this Prelate But every Man's Calamity is fittest for himself trust the Divine appointment for that And if all Adversities of several Men were laid in several heaps a wise Man would take up his own and carry them home upon his Shoulders Hâ—rmolaus Barbarus in an Epistle to Maximilian King of the Romans Polit. Epis p. 447. distinguisheth between Happiness and Greatness Secundae res felicem Magnum faciunt adversae But if he that is beset round with distresses bear them to the Estimation of good Men to appear great in them then is he happy as well as great Which is to be demonstrated in the Subject that I write of as followeth 2. King Charles began his Reign Mart. 27. 1625. The next day he sent for the Lord-Keeper to his Court at St. James's who found his Majesty and the Lord-Duke busied in many Cares The King spake first of setling his Houshold among whom the Keeper commended two out of his own Family to be preserr'd but it was past over without an Answer only his Domestick Chaplain was taken into ordinary Service for whom he had made no suit But to begin the well-ordering of the new Court he was appointed to give the Oath to the Lords of the Privy-Council Sir Humphrey May taken into the Number a very wise States man and no more of a new Call Then likewise order was given for the Funerals of the deceased King and the Keeper chosen to Preach on the occasion of which enough is said already by a convenient Anticipation The Coronation was spoken of though the time was not determin'd Yet the King told the Keeper he must provide a Sermon for that likewise but he that bespoke him was of another mind before the Day of the Solemnization was ripe That which was much insisted upon at this Consult was a Parliament His Majesty being so forward to have it sit that he did both propound and dispute it to have no Writs go forth to call a new one but to continue the same which had met in one Session in his blessed Father's days and prorogued to another against that Spring The Lord-Keeper shewed That the old Parliament determined with his death that call'd it in his own Name and gave it Authority to meet Since necessity requir'd a new Choice the King's Will was That Writs should be dispatcht from the Chancery forthwith and not a day to be lost The Keeper craved to be heard and said it was usual in times before that the King's Servants and trustiest Friends did deal with the Countries Cities and Boroughs where they were known to procure a Promise for their Elections before the precise time of an insequent Parliament was publisht and that the same Forecast would be good at that time which would not speed if the Summons were divulged before they lookt about them The King answer'd It was high time to have Subsidies granted for the maintaining of a War with the King of Spain and the Fleet must go forth for that purpose in the Summer The Keeper said little again lest Fidelity should endanger a Suspicion of Malice and he little dreamt that the Almanack of the new Year or new Reign was so soon calculated for the Longitude of a War and the Latitude of vast Sums of Money to pay the Service Yet he replied in a few words but with so cold a consent that the King turned away and gave him leave to be gone He that was not chearful to say good Luck have you with that Expedition was not thought worthy to have an Oar in the great Barque which was launching out and making ready for the King's Marriage with the sweet Lady of France Yet who but he to treat with Embassadors of that Nation and on that Score in his old Master's time Among all the Cares that came into Consideration that day in the sulness of business this had the start and was hastned the same Morning with Posts and Pacquets Cupid's Wings could not possibly fly faster Yet his Majesty spake nothing of it to this able Counsellor although the Rumor of it in a Week was heard from Thames to Twede And the Duke began to hold no Conference with him neither from that day did he call for this Abiathar and say Bring hither the Ephod to ask Counsel of the Lord. Evident Tokens to make any Man see what would come after that was far less than a Prophet Which this wife Man past over and seem'd to observe nothing that was ominous or unfriendly But as Lord Mornay says in his Answer about the Conference at Fountain-bleau when Henry of France the 4th forbad him coming to the Louver Specto eclipsin expecto intrepidus securus quid illa secum vehat So the Lord-Keeper was better acquainted with Heaven than to be troubled at an Eclipse which is an accident prodigious to none but to a Fool but familiar to a Philosopher And he had learnt in the Morals by heart that the way to lose Honour is to be too careful to keep it 3. While the great Assairs did run thus the Keeper went close to his Book as much as publick business would allow to frame a Sermon against the Obsequies of blessed James He did not conceive that the Counsels which he gave to the King on the second day of his Reign were so ill taken as he heard not long after He that speaks with the trust of a Counsellor and which is more with the Tongue of a Bishop should be priviledged to be plain and faithful without offence As St. Ambrose mindeth Theodosius Ep. 29. Non est imperiale libertatem dicendi negare neque sacerdotale quid sentias non dicere But News knockt at his Study-door two days after that my Lord-Duke threatned before many that attended to turn him out of his Office And the French Ambassadors were not the last that gave him warning of it These Rumors he lookt upon with his Eyes open and saw the approaching of a Downfal and so little dissembled it that he warn'd some of his Followers secretly who were in best account with him to procure dependance upon some other Master for his Service e're long would not be worthy of them It were to small purpose to enquire why the Duke's Grace did so hastily press the Ruine of one that had been his old Friend and Creature It was his game and he lov'd it I
Subjects Roman Catholicks and every of them as well by Information Presentment Indictment Conviction Process Seisure Distress or Imprisonment as also by any other ways or means whatsoever whereby they may be molested for the Causes aforesaid And further also That from time to time you take notice of and speedily redress all Causes of Complaints for or by reason of any thing done contrary to this our will And this shall be unto you and to all to whom you shall give such Warrant Order and Direction a sufficient Warrant and Discharge in that behalf There was no scrupling of this Order but it must be dispatch'd For though as a great Counsellor the Keeper was to be watchful over the Voices and Affections of the People and that he knew this was not the Course to keep the Subject in terms of Contentment yet he had no power to stop the Tide as in former days My Lord of Buckin would not stay to hear the Arguments of his Wisdom Altissimo orbe praecipuâ potentiâ stella Saturni fortur Tacit. 1 list lib. 5. The Planet of Saturn was in the highest Orb and ruled all the Influence of the Court Where was now the Cavil against the Spanish Match that in the Treaty for it it encroach'd too far upon Religion Indeed my Lord of Kensington writes from Paris Cab. p. 275. The French will not strain us to any unreasonableness in Conditions for the Catholicks And as much again p. 284. Their Pulse in matter of Religion beats temperately So he told us in another Pacquet p. 292. That the French will never abandon us in the Action for the recovering the Palatinate Which of these Engagements were broken last a more solid Question than to ask Which of their Promises were kept first They kept none Some chop out Promises as Nurses tell Tales to Children to lull them asleep As it is in the neat Phrase of Arnobius Somno occupari ut possint leves audiendoe sunt naenioe The Histories of Spain and the Netherlands as well as of England do not spare to touch that Noble Nation that none have taken greater liberty to play fast and loose with Articles and Covenants And as the French were inconstant to us so new Symptoms and new Apprehensions made us variable and inconstant to our selves Now a Letter must be sent to all Magistrates Spiritual and Temporal to cause them to suspend the Execution of all Laws against the Papists At the Term at Reading in November following Divulgation is made in all Courts under the Broad-Seal that all Officers and Judges should proceed against them according to Law After the Second Parliament of King Charles was broken up that is in the Summer that followed the Term at Reading by the Mediation of the French Embassador Marshal Bassampere new Letters come from the King to redintegrate Favours to the Recusants and that all Pursevants must be restrained and their Warrants to search the Houses of Papists taken from them And this continued but till Winter It was safe and just to return quickly again into the High-way of the Law for the shortest Errors are the best Especially in God's Cause Which Vincen. Lirin well adviseth Nos religionem non quo volumus ducere sed quò illa nos ducit sequi debemus We must take up the Train of Religion and come after it and not lead it after us in a String of Policy 5. Private Men may better keep this Rule than such as are publickly employed in the State But though the Keeper had no remedy but the preceding Warrant must be obeyed Yet he tryed his Majesty how his Service would be taken in stopping a Warrant upon another occasion bearing date May 23. Because the sumptuous Entertainment of the Queen and her magnificient Convoy being ready to land would be very chargeable he thrust in his Judgment to advise the King against disorderly Liberality And though he knew the Secretary Conway for no other than a Friend yet he lik'd not his Encroachment upon the Royal Bounty but signifies it in this manner Most dread Sovereign and my most gracious Master I Received this Morning a Warrant from your most Excellent Majesty to pass a Grant under the Great-Seal of England of the Sum of Two thousand Pounds out of the Court of Wards to my Lord Conway for Twenty One Years to come The which I durst not for fear of infringing my Duty to your Majesty and drawing some danger upon my self pass under the Great-Seal before I had made unto your most Excellent Majesty this most humble Representation First The issuing of so great a Lease of such a vast Sum of Money is under your Majesty's Favour and Correction disadvantageous to your Majesty's Service in regard of the time being in the face of that Parliament from which your Majesty is to expect a main Supply Secondly It is I believe without Prsident or Example that Pensions have been granted in Contemplation of Services for Years But for the Party's Life only My Lord of Middlesex his Lease of the Sugars is the only President in that kind which hath hapned during the time of my Service in this Place Thirdly The Assigning of this Pension upon the Court of Wards or any other Place than the Receipt of the Exchequer is directly against the Rules and Orders taken upon mature deliberation by your Father of Blessed Memory Fourthly This great Lord for so be is indeed is in the Eye and the Envy of many Men as your Majesty I fear it will hear e're long As having received more great Favours within these two Years than any Three Subjects within this Kingdom Although I do believe looking up to the hands that conferred them he may well deserve them all Most gracious Sovereign I am not ignorant of the danger I incur in making this Representation But I have put on an irremoveable Resolution that as long as you are pleased to continue me in your Service I will never from this time forth out of Contemplation of mine own Safety or any other carnal Respect neglect voluntarily any part of my Duty to my God or my King Which I suppose I had greatly forgotten without presenting your most Excellent Majesty with this Remonstrance And having perform'd this part of my Duty I shall most punctually obey your Majesty's Direction in this particular For this good Service it was well he had no check yet he had no gra-mercy to seem wiser than those that had prepared the business And though the Patent for that Pension was a flat Violation of good Order yet the Plea was it would be unkind to revoke it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch in the Life of Agis observes it in some Mens Humours Though a thing be ill undertaken it is held a shame to go back This Lord Secretary was the Keeper's cold Friend upon it but he lived not long and quitted his Office before he ceased to live Only some deckings of empty Titles were given him
that he might not faint The most that was disliked in the Letter was that it warn'd the Secretary that he was like to hear himself nam'd among the Grievances of the ensuing Parliament Wherein he did not fail It was no hard thing to Prognostick such a Tempest from the hollow murmuring of the Winds abroad There was not such a Watch-man about the Court as the Keeper was to espy Discontents in the dark nor any one that had so many Eyes abroad in every corner of the Realm What hurt was it Nay Why was it not call'd a Courtesie to awaken a Friend pursued by danger out of prudent Collections Says a wise Senator Tul. Act. 7. in Verrem Judex esse bonus non potest qui suspicione certâ non movetur He is no sound judge of Rumors that gleans not up a certain Conclusion out of strong Suspicions 6. To speak forward After the Queen had been receiv'd with much lustre of Pomp and Courtship which had been more if a very pestilentious Season in London and far and wide had not frown'd upon publick Resorts and full Solemnities a Parliament began Stay a while and hear that in a little which concerns much that followed This is the highest and supereminent Court of our Kings The University of the whole Realm where the Graduates of Honour the Learned in the Laws and the best Practicers of Knowledge and Experience in the Land do meet Horreum sapientiae or the full Chorus where the Minds of many are gather'd into one Wisdom And yet in five Parliaments which this King call'd there was distance and disorder in them all between him and his People Amabile est praeesse civibus sed placere difficile as Symmachus to his Lord Theodosius Our Sovereign had not the Art to please or rather his Subjects had not the Will to be pleased And we all see by the Event that God was displeas'd upon it If he had won them or they had won him neither had been losers Pliny's Fable or Story of the Two Goats Lib. 8. c. 50. Suits the Case The Two Goats met upona narrow Bridge the one laid down his Body for the other to go over him or both had been thrust into the River In the Application who had done best to have yielded is too mysterious to determine Both or either had done well But now we see and shall feel it I believe it is not Love nor Sweetness nor Sufferance that keeps a Nation within the straits of due Obedience it must be Power that needs not to entreat The Scepter can no more than propound the Sword will carry it This Truth was once little worn but now it is upon our backs and we are like to wear it so long till we are all Thread-bare Thucyd. lib. 2. says of Theseus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theseus govern'd Athens being as potent as wise His Wisdom taught the Athenians to keep a good pace but Awe and Potency did bridle and compel them to suffer their Rider or else they would have thrown him King Charles knew how to govern as well as Theseus But he was not so stout I am sure not so strong His Condition in the present stood thus When he was Prince he was the Messenger and the Mediator from the Parliament to extort a War against Spain from his Father Of which Design he was but the Lieutenant before is now become the Captain He sets the Action on foot and calls for Contribution to raise and pay an Army Instead of satisfaction in Subsidies two alone granted towards the charge of the great Funeral past and the Coronation to come they call for Reformation in Government One lifts up a Grievance and another a Grievance and still the Cry continues and multiplies As they spake with many Tongues so I would they could have taken up Serpents and felt no harm The plain Sense of it is those subtile Men of the lower House put the young King upon the push of Necessity and then took advantage of the Time and that Necessity They had cast his Affairs into want of Money and he must yield all that they demanded or else get no Money without which the War could not go on Here was the Foundation laid of all the Discontents that followed A capite primùm computrescit piscis says the Proverb If they had answer'd with that Confidence and Love as was invited from them England had not sat in sorrow as at this day And I will as soon die as retract these words that all Affairs might have been in a most flourishing Estate if the People in that or in any Parliament had been as good as the King Optimos gubernatores hand mediocriter etiam manus remigum juvat Symmach p. 128. The Pilot spends his breath in vain if the Oar-men will not strike a stroke A good Head can do nothing without their Hands If I should hold yet that this King was to be blam'd in nothing I should speak too highly of Humane Nature They that pass through much business cannot choose but incur Errors which will fall under Censure yet it were better under Pardon The most that aggrieved the Council of Parliament was that the King's Concessions for the good of the People came not off chearfully He wanted a way indeed to give a Gift and to make it thank-worthy in the manner of bestowing A small Exception when one grave Sentence from his Mouth did mean more reality than a great deal of Volubility with sweetness and smiling to which I confess they had been fortunately used But when all is done as the Poets say The Muses sing sweeter than the Syrens and a sullen something is better than a gracious nothing 7. And these are instead of Contents For the Chapter that is the business of the Capitol follows The Parliament began and the whole Assembly stood before the King So there was a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord Job 1.6 but there was another thrust in among them What his Majesty spake than is printed more then once It was not much but enough it was not long but there wanted nothing Good Seed it was yet it came not up well although it was water'd with two showers of Eloquence by the Lord-Keeper the first directed to the Lords and Commons the other to Sir Thomas Crew the Speaker Which will tell the Reader more Truth than is yet come abroad whom I would have to remember Baronius's Caution in his Epistle to the first Tome of his Annals Nihil periculosius est in historiâ quà m cuivis scribeâ—â— in quâcunqae re fidem habere But hear what the King willed to be publish'd to his Parliament by the Mouth of his great Officer My Lords and Gentlemen all YOU have heard his Majesty's Speech though short yet Full and Princely and rightly Imperatorious as Tacitus said of Galbas Neither must we account that Speaker to be short Qui materiae immoratur that keeps himself
true Religion Et pater Aeneas avunculus excitat Hector Lastly for his great delivery by Sea and Land which so filled our Mouths with Laughter and our Tongues with Joy it shew'd him betimes a Child of King James and withal a Child of God and being so Nolite tangere no Evil might touch him As God was with Moses so he was and will be with him non deseret aut derelinquet he will never fail him nor forsake him To the which Prayer all we his representative Kingdom will never fail to say Amen 12. What you said of the true Religion is most apparently true that it hath been very piously charged upon our King and hitherto full of Blessings upon our Kingdom For the first his Majesty well remembers what I ill forgot in another occasion that the last Blessing of all his Father gave him and I think upon a Motion of mine was with a Recommendation of his Religion and of his People to his special Care Love and Protection And I nothing doubt but that Blessing shall so bless him that he shall see Jerusalem in Prosperity all his Life long And for the effect of our Religion it hath hitherto produced in this Kingdom a very Kingdom of Heaven not only after this Life but even in this Life for the space of sixty Seven Years wherein it hath been most constantly professed All that time Peace hath been within our Walls and plenteousness within our Palaces Non fecit sic omni nationi God hath not dealt so with many nor with any Nation in Europe that I know or read of Sixthly what you recommended to the King concerning the Laws of the Land the King hath already in private and doth now in publick recommend to his Judges and by them to the Professors and Students of the Laws to wit that they would spend their time as their Fore-fathers did in the ancient Common-Laws of the Kingdom and not altogether as the Complaint hath been of late in Statutes new Cases and modern Abridgments In the former Studies you meet with Reason created by God in the latter with Opinion only invented by Men. Here you find peradventure some strong Conclusions but upon weak Grounds and Premises there you learn strong Premises that can never produce a weak Conclusion In a word to borrow the Simile of St. Basil there like Ulysses you Court Penelope herself here like the foolish Wooers but her Hand-maids only Seventhly that just Resentment you express of the Dishonour of our Nation in that hostile Acquisition and Detension of the Palatinate you cannot imagine Mr. Speaker how much it contents his most Excellent Majesty Now he finds indeed his People to be lively Members of this Politick Body because they sympathize so seelingly with the grievous Pains and Troubles of their Head And surely he is no true Part but an Excrescency or dead Flesh upon the outside of the State that is not sensible of his Majesty's Sufferings in those Affairs God forbid against all these Professions this Kingdom should prove to a People so allied either a Meroz as you term it for Inhumanity or an Aegypt for Infidelity or a whit inferior to Caesar himself to aid and relieve them You heard the full Measure of the King's Resolution the last day Ire oportet vivere non oportet He doth not desire to live otherwise than in Glory and Reputation And so he cannot live you know it well enough till somewhat be vigorously effected in that great business of the Palatinate Eightly for the abandoning of those Sons of Bichri the Priest and Jesuits his Majesty returns you this Answer As he doth approve your Zeal and Devotion herein and acknowledgeth that of St. Ambrose to be true Quod in religionem committitur in omnium vertitur injuriam that the meanest Subject in this Kingdom hath a great right and Interest in the Religion so being appointed by and under God Custos utriusque tabulae the Guardian and Keeper of both the Tables he desires you to trust him whose Zeal was never yet questioned or suspected with the ways and means to propagate the same Yet in this Petition of yours his most Excellent Majesty doth absolutely grant the Effect and the Matter that is to be most careful of our Religion or which you more desire to improve and better the Form and Manner But as St. Austin saith of God himself Non tribuit aliquando quod volumus ut quod malimus attribuat Lastly for your four ordinary Petitions for Immunity of Persons liberty of Speech readiness of Access benign Interpretation his most Excellent Majesty grants them all and will have them limited by no other bounds than your own Wisdom Modesty and good Discrietion So his Majesty bids God Speed the Plow 13. I look upon him that spake so well for the King two days together as Antiquarius did upon the L. Picus Mirandula Ratio oratio cum ipso ex côdem utero natae videantur Ep. 279. Here 's strong Mettle and a keen Edge able to cleave the hardest Knot Here 's Reason to convince Judgment with store of Eloquence to delight the Affections Which could not be past over without this censure for it is an ill thrift to be parsimonious in the praise of that which is very good The King reposed much upon the Success of this Meeting because his Mind was so well deliver'd and so strongly put on The Cause of the War was made the Kingdoms The Counsel that began it was the Parliaments and were they not bound to find the Succours As our Poet Mr. Johnson says upon Prince Henry's Barriers He doth but scourge himself his Sword that draws Without a Purse a Counsel and a Cause But the Registers of all Ages I believe will not shew a Man in whom Vertue was more perpetually unfortunate than in this King The Influence of those ill Stars that reigned over all his Reign began thus soon The Parliament was told as if a Dictator had been nominated for this War that all must be consulted and executed together that the present Sacrifice must be eaten in haste like the Lord's first Passover for in that juncture slow help was no help Yet in five Weeks so long they sat at Westminster there was not an Arrow to any purpose shot towards that Mark. These were they that thrust his Majesty upon a War to the mortifying of his Father's part and now his Enemies were awak'd with the Alarum they let him shift for himself Being told enough that there must be Gold as well as Iron to play this Game and that a good Purse made a good Army they gave him such discouragement that they dropt no more than two Mites into the Corban An incredible disproportion between what was found and what was lookt for and suitable to a Passage in an Italian Comedy where a Guest complains of his ill Entertainment at a Miser's Table that there was not enough to make a good Supper nor scarce
Employment by and from your excellent Majesty First your Majesty knoweth I was threatned before your Majesty to be complained of in Parliament on the third Day of your Reign And though your Majesty most graciously promis'd to do me Justice therein Yet was I left under that Minacy and the Minacer for ought I know left to his course against me 2. My Lord-Duke confest he knew the Complaints and Complainants and gave me leave to suspect his Grace which indeed I had cause to do if within three days and three days he should not acquaint me with the Names of the Parties Which I desir'd to know not to expostulate but to watch and provide to defend my innocency His Grace failed me in his promise herein I employed Sir Charles Glemham and Mr. Sackvile Crowe to press him for an Answer which was such as they durst not in modesty return unto me 3. Sir Francis Seymore a Knight whom I know not by sight told many of that House who imparted it unto me that upon his first coming to Oxford he was dealt with by a Creature of my Lord-Dukes whom I can name to set upon the Lord-Keeper and they should be backed by the greatest Men in the Kingdom Who gave this Answer That he found nothing against the Lord-Keeper but the Malice of those great Men. 4. Sir John Eliot the only Member that began to thrust in a Complaint against me the Lord-Viscount Saye who took upon him to name Sir Thomas Crew to succeed in my Place Sir William Stroud and Sir Nathanael Rich whom my Friends most noted to malice me were never out of my Lord-Duke's Chamber and Bosom 5. Noble-men of good Place and near your Majesty gave me often intelligence that his Grace's Agents stirred all their Powers to set the Commons upon me 6. I told the Lord-Duke in my Garden that having been much reprehended by your Majesty and his Grace in the Earl of Middlesex's Tryal for thanking the last King at Greenwich for promising to protect his Servants and great Officers against the People and Parliament I durst not be so active and stirring by my Friends in that House as otherwise I should be unless your Majesty by his Grace's means would be pleas'd to encourage me with your Royal Promise to defend and protect me in your Service If I might hear your Majesty say so much I would venture then my Credit and my Life to manage what should be entrusted to me to the uttermost After which he never brought me to your Majesty nor any Message from you Standing therefore upon these doubtful terms unemploy'd in the Duties of my Place which were now assign'd over to my Lord Conway and Sir J. Cooke and left out of all Committees among the Lords of the Council which I know was never done by the direction of your Majesty who ever conceiv'd of me far above my Merit and consequently fallen much in the Power and Reputation due to my place I durst not at this time with any Safety busie my self in the House of Commons with any other than that measure of Zeal which was exprest by the rest of the Lords of the Privy-Council Gracious and dread Sovereign if this be not enough to clear me let me perish 19. The King was a Judge of Reason and of Righteousness and found so much in that Paper that he dismist him that presented it graciously for that time his Destiny being removed two Months further off though it was strongly urg'd not to delay it for a day But in St. Cyprian's words Nemo diu tutus est periculo proximus About a Fortnight after at Holdbery in New-forrest the Duke unfast'ned him utterly from the good Opinion of his Majesty and at Plimouth in the midst of September obtain'd an irrevocable Sentence to deprive him of his Office If the Queen could have stopt this Anger he had not been remov'd with whom he had no little Favour by the Credit he had got with the chief Servants of her Nation and by a Speech which took her Majesty very much which he made unto her in May upon her coming to White-hall and in such French as he had studied when he presented his Brethren the Bishops and their Homage to her Majesty His Friends of that Nation shew'd themselves so far that Pere Berule the Queen's Confessor and not long after a Cardinal was the first that advertis'd him how my Lord-Duke had lifted him out of his Seat 'T is custom to Toll a little before a Passing-bell ring out and that shall be done in a Moral strode as Chaucer calls it Such as would know the true Impulsion unto this Change shall err if they draw it from any thing but the Spanish Negotiation Not as if the Lord-Keeper had done any one much less many ill Services to the Duke as one mistakes For I take the Observator to be so just that he would have done as much himself if he had been in place King James was sick'till that Marriage was consummated and died because he committed it to the Skill of an Emperick The Keeper serv'd the King's directions rather than the cross ways of the Duke which was never forgiven Though the late Parliament had wrought wonders to the King 's Content as it gave him none this innocent Person had receiv'd the Blow which was aimed at him before the Parliament sat He bestirr'd him in the former King's Reign to check the encroaching of the Commons about impeaching the great Peers and Officers of the Realm which the Duke fomented in the Earl of Middlesex's Case Since that House began to be filled with some that were like the turbulent Athenians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meursius Ath. Attic. p. 79. It grieved him at the Heart that more time was spent by far to pluck up an honest Magistrate than to plant good Laws There was no Sin I think that he hated more than that Epidemick violence which he saw was come about that the People extoll'd them most as it was once in the Days of Marius that endeavour'd to thrust down the most noble Patricians This is the right Abstract what was and what was not the Cause of this Mutation 20. There were yet other things that did concur to precipitate his Downfall First My Lord of Buckingham's honest Servants would say that he gave their Master constantly the best Counsel but that he was too robustious in pressing it Vim temperatam Dii quoque provehunt in majus Horat. lib. 3. Od. Well I do not deny it But the more stout in that Point the more true and cordial He that loses such a one that comes to prop him up who had rather offend him than not save him Navem perforat in quâ ipse navigat Cicer. pro Milone he sinks the Bark wherein himself fails The Scythians were esteemed barbarous but this is wise and civil in them as Lucian reports in his Toxaris They have no wealth but he is counted the richest Man that hath
Commons which your Majesly was pleas'd most graciously to intimate unto me at Woodstock for which Goodness I am oblig'd to serve you faithfully and industriously as long as I live and am able and to pray for you when I can do no more as I remonstrated before so I vow again to Almighty God I never spake directly or indirectly to above three of them in my Life nor to any one of them that one time to Philips excepted with the Privity and as I hoped for the Service of my Lord-Duke during the Continuance of the Sitting at Oxford Were it otherwise it were impossible in a Family of Sixty Persons as mine was to have it conceal'd I add farther That if it can be proved that I let fall the least word to any Person of the one or other House opposite to any known or revealed end of your Majesties I am content to remain guilty of whatever the Malice or Suspicion of any Man shall suggest against me Secondly If I have offended your Majesty in that bumble Motion I made at Christ-Church that your Majesty would say in your Speech unto the Parliament that in your Actions of Importance and in the Dispositions of what Sums of Monies your People should bestow upon you you would take the Advice of a settled and a constant Council I do humbly submit my self to your Royal Judgment therein and do beg your gracious Pardon for any thing I said amiss in matter or manner But I take God in Heaven to witness I had no aim at all to draw your Majesty to asperse thereby either the times past for that was now past all Counsel or the time present for your Majesty is but entred into your Reign Or to admonish your Majesty for I take God to witness I held it no ways necessary but did and do believe it is your absolute Resolution to govern by Council And much less was it to make you go less in your Power For many Kings in Parliament have said as much Se actumoâ— majora negotia per assensum Magnatum de Conciliis who intended not to turn Dukes of Venice but as they proved indeed great and mighty Monarchs at home and abroad But my only aim was as I shall answer it at the last day to save my Lord of Buckingham from those Invectives in this kind which I saw falling upon hiâ—â— and to dispose the Commons by that Clause of your Majesty's Speech to a short and a giving Session If I had not been free herein from all Sinister ends I had never dealt so earnestly with my Lord-Duke the night before that he himself would be pleased to move it to your Majesty Lastly what Protestation I have made for your Majesty I do now before God and you make the like for my Lord-Duke's Service a Person so much and so deservedly favour'd by your Majesty that I have not run any way at all with any Person of the one or the other House for the stirring fometâ—ing or countenancing of any Accusation Aspersion or other disservice whatsoever against his Lordship either in the first or the second Access of this last sitting Nor have I ever wish'd his Grace any more hurt than to my own Soul from that very hour your Majesty's most blessed Father sent me unto his Grace at Royston to this very instant And this I avow to be true as I desire to find Favour from God and my King I write unto your Majesty under these Protestations to give your Majesty only not any Man else all fitting satisfaction to whose Goodness I confess my self unexpressibly bound Les me not I beseech your Majesty in point of Justice lose your Favour upon groundless Suspicious of other Mâ—n who may themselves hereafter be better informed But let me stand or fall upon year Majesty own Knowledge derived from the Information of indifferent and dis-interossed Persons upon which I will most willingly and thankfully repose my part in your Favour and mine own Happiness In Confidence whereof I cast my self at your Majesty's Feet c. 23. This came to Salisbury and was shewn to my Lord-Duke which put his Cabinet to meet together again And 't was a notable Shift which came into their Heads and wrought upon the King's Judgment as that which had likelihood of Reason Which was thus that as the Keeper had been complain'd of so he should be charg'd home with his own Words nay with his own Letters But none durst accuse him till he was out of his Greatness Upon the Expiration of that the Proofs should be brought in who coming about the first Week in October to Salisbury and hearing this told such as were desired to carry it to the King and the great Lord that he would not sly the Tilt nor start from any colour of Accusation That the World would see how preposterous it was first to punish and then to bring to Judgment Multis minatur qui uni facit injuriam The wrong that was done to one Man would affright all others with that Oppression What Lord or Gentleman in England that had Place and Means would think himself safe upon the Example of such Proceedings From the hour that the Keeper committed this Message to trusty Friends to deliver it the Gorgen's Head had a Veil drawn before it and it never confronted him either at the Council-Table or in any Court of Justice but was laid still for ever Yet was not a jot the better for it The Suspicion was smother'd and yet liv'd and wrought as much to his prejudice as if he had been tried before the Court of Areopagites and convicted by their Verdict Only this Happiness did live with him and doth survive him that such as have no Interest in it but the discovery of Truth do see it was Crimen sine accusatore Sententia sine Concilio damnatio sine defensione Tul. Act. 7. in Verrem He that was degraded without hearing Tryal Proof Witness Judges is overthrown by Calumny not by Accusation For Accusation admits a fair and a legal Process Calumny is believed without a Contestation After this it was not long before some quick Eye espied a way to execute the King's Resolution for divesting the Party of his honourable Place but with such Moderation as would load him with no impeachment of his Service but barely recalling the Great-Seal from his Custody because it was committed to him at first upon triennial Trust and no longer Which was no unwonted Revocation says the great and learned Luminary of Records Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary upon the word Cancellarius Non perpetuus olim fuit honor sed triennalis vel quadriennalis This device struck the Tally for all Debts and Claims and left the loser a more light Heart though he parted with a heavy Purse For he took his farewel without the least Charge of Trespass or Miscarriage he was cast down but fell not in the Dirt. Sua vulnera ridet Germanam comitata fidem as Pruden
his Answers both because he limited them so warily in all his Concessions and because if he were left to himself he lov'd to keep his Word For he was observ'd in all his Reign that he seldom trod awry but by mistrusting his own Judgment and falling from it for their Perswasions that came short of him a great deal in Wit and Honesty It was an Error For a King should appear in that Magnitude that no Man should expect to deceive him or remove him from his Sentence If he be too passive he will be counted at the best but in the middle Rank of Men who should not be contented with mediocrity of Reputation For a Prince that is not valued for great and excellent will be contemn'd Yet blame not that which came not from Sin but from Softness And say of his Majesly as Eudaeus did of his Master Francis the first Vir ad omnia summa natus dignusque qui suâ—e naturae magis quà m hiantibus aliorum cupiditatibus indulgeret The forlorn Keeper felt the Heaviness of this Lightness who thought he had obtain'd much but excepting the four Advousons confirm'd to St. John's College he mist all that he sought for and expected After he had lest Salisbury which was the next day he could never receive a Farthing of his Pension nor bring it to an Audit to his dying day Was it not a Debt True But it must be forborn to be paid because he did not want it Must the Rich if they ask their own be sent empty away A Rule for none but the Conscience of a Leveller But I press it for him that he wanted it and more than it to do Works of Piety and Bravery to do Works of Splendor and Bounty which was all the Use that he knew to be made of Wealth As all is superfluous in a burning Candle but that which the Snuff sucks up to maintain the Light So the Life of every Man especially of a temperate Man is maintain'd with little What should he covet more than so much as will keep his Lamp in burning Nor was the King's Scepter after that day held out to becken to him to come towards his Majesty The Favour of a Prince is seldom found again when it is lost like Plautus his Captive Maid Semel fugiendi si data est occasiâ— nunquam post illam possis prendere if she take her to her Heels and be gone she will run away so far that she will never be taken The Attendants about a King are in the fault for this Who will grow Strangers and worse of a sudden to those that were lately in their Bosom if a King send them off with disgrace A cashiered Courtier is an Almanack of the last Year remembred by nothing but the great Eclipse Look for gentle Strains and Civilities among them from the Noâ—â—es to the Huishers but he that trusts to their Faith and Friendship may go seek That which this dismissed Lord did most pretend for was to be called again after some pause of time to the Council-board But he was utterly forgot and his grief must be the less because he was no Counsellor in the Management of those Contrivances which bred the Troubles as 't is thought wherein the Kingdom miscarried So he resolv'd not to offer his Presence where he should be checkt for appearing It is sagely noted by Symmachus Ep. p. 91. Qui excludi per improbos possimus abesse interim velut ex nostro arbitrio debemus Let it be my own act says he to refrain from the Imperial Palace and let not haughty and churlish Men have their Wills to exclude me But before five days were run out this relinquish'd Lord had intelligence how the Duke talk'd so minaciously and loudly that it made him throw all expectation of future Kindness over-board into the dead Sea of Despair Since this Disaster began he was never couragious and in good heart till then Now as Plato began he was never couragious and in good heart till then Now as Plato says of Socrates his Hemlock-Cup brought to him to drink it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not sip it but carouse it off So much doth it profit a Man towards a settled Mind to let no false Comfort in when he is in the darkness of Misery Hermolaus Barbarus had many Troubles rushing in upon him after he was made Patriarch of Aquileia Whereupon he writes Politia Ep. p. 405. I am surrounded with Terrors and Opposition and I look for no better Times hereafter which is the best and only true Valour Non est fortis qui fortis est in spe qui perfert mala etiam si duratura viderit fortis est He that looks for better times his Hope is his Compensation but without Question it is too slack for Fortitude 30. The Sun is now Setting Upon the 25th of October Sir John Suckling brought the Warrant from the King to receive the Seal and the good News came together very welcome to the Resignant that Sir Thomas Coventry should have that Honour From whom the Kingdom look'd for much good and found it Between both those two Worthies in that Office I may state the Comparison as Quintilian hath done between Livy and Salust Pares eos magis fuisse quà m similes rather Equals than altogether like in the Management of the Place The Warrant under the Signet went thus Charles R. TRusty and Well-beloved Counsellor we greet you well You are to deliver upon the Receipt hereof our Great-Seal of England whereof you are our Keeper unto our Trusty and Well-beloved Counsellor Sir John Suckling Controuler of our Houshold the Bearer hereof And this shall be a sufficient Warrant unto you so to do Given under Our Signet at our Court at Salisbury the 23 d. of October in the first Year of our Reign Which was instantly obey'd And the Seal being put into a costly Cabinet in Sir John Suckling's Presence the Key of the Cabinet was inclosed in a Letter closed with the Episcopal Seal of Lincoln The Copy whereof remains in these Words Most gracious and most dread Sovereign HAving now no other Meditations left than how to serve God and your Majesty in the Quality of a poor Bishop I do humbly crave your Majesty's Favour in this last Paper which I shall present to your Majesty in this kind that I may president my self by two grave Bishops St. Ambrose and St. Chrysostom In the former I find myself dispos'd for this Civil as St. Ambrosewas for his natural Death Non ita vixi ut me vivere pudeat nee mori timeo quia bonum habemus Dominum That as I have not liv'd in my Place so altogether unworthily as to be asham'd to continue in the same so am I not now perturb'd in the quitting of the same because I know I have a good God and a gracious Sovereign For the other I present this my last and dying Request in the very last Words of St. Chrysostom
that they kept Centinel at all Hours and Seasons to expect the second coming of the Lord Jesus Arch-bishop Spotswood tells us of the like Anno. 510. p. 11. That St. Mungo founded a Monastery in Wales and took order that the Monks had day and night divided among them one Company succeeding another so that there were some always in the Church praying and praising God In which and in all the rest What was there offensive Nay What not to be admir'd To leave it off or to lessen it for the Girds of lavish Tongues were like the Man in the Dutch Epigram That would eat nothing but Spoon-meat for fear of wearing out his Teeth God be glorified for such whose Prayers were powerful and uncessant to pierce the Heavens The whole Land was the better for their Sanctity They fasted that Famine might not be inflicted upon our common Gluttony They abridg'd themselves of all Pleasures that Vengeance might not come down upon the Voluptuousness of this riotous Age. They kept their Vigils all Night that the Day of the Lord might not come upon us like a Thief unawares that sleep in security The whole World was the better for their Contempt of the World As Philostratus says of the Hilobii Lib. 3. vit Apollonii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were in the World not of the World All their Practice was heavenly a great deal of it had some Singularity by the Custom of our corrupt ways who do not strive to enter in at the strait Gate to come to Blessedness 51. The Fame of the Dispensations of this worthy Family the further it was heard abroad the more it sounded like Popery Envy or Ignorance could guess no better at it but that it was a Casa Professa a Convent pack'd together of some Superstitious Order beyond Seas or a Nunnery and that the Sufferance of it look'd towards a change in Religion After the Sentence of Salust Boni quà m mali susâ—ectiores sunt semperque aliena virtus formidolosa est A Crew of Bawds and Gamesters might have set up a Standing with less prejudice than these Devotionaries But God help us if the best Protestants for these may be called so do look like Papists Had they been hired with Gold that so mistook them they could not have done more Credit and Honour to our Adversaries Speak Sir Cenjurâ—r we the true Children of the Church of England were we not without departing from our own Station capable of Mortification of vowing our selves to God of renouncing the World of Fasting of Vigils of Prayer limited to Canons and Hours as any that say and do not that call themselves from St. Basil St. Bennet or such other Institution Not our Reformation but our Slothfulness doth indispose us that we let others run faster than we in Temperance in Chastity in Scleragogy as it was call'd The Diocesan and their Neighbour to this Family in a few Miles was asham'd at these Scandals which he knew to be spiteful and temerarious He knew the Occurrences of his Precinct as Apelles was wont to fit behind the Pictures hung up in his Shop to hear what Passengers that went to and fro did approve or discommend These were known to the Bishop by right Information from the time that they sealed a Charter among themselves as it were to be constant and regular in their Spiritual Discipline But their Heavenly mindedness was best discover'd to him when two Sons of Mrs. Farrar the Mother and Matron of the Houshold treated with the Bishop to endow the Church with the Tythes which had been impropriated this was in Sept. 1633. as appears by a Smack of that which fell from the Pen of the Donor as followeth Right Reverend Father in God THE Expectation of Opportunities having some Years whealed me off from the Performance of this Business I now think it necessary to break through all Impediments and humbly to present to your Lordship the Desires and the Intentions of my Heart Beseeching you on God's behalf to take them into your Fatherly Consideration and to give a speedy Accomplishment to them by the Direction of your Wisdom and the Assistance of your Authority The rest is too much to be rehearsed save a little of her Prayer to God in the end of the Papers BE graciously pleased Lord now to accept from thy Hand-maid the Restitution of that which hath been unduely heretofore taken from thy Ministers And as an earnest and pledge of the total Resignation of her self and hers to thy Service vouchsafe to receive to the use of thy Church this small Portion of that large Estate which thou hast bestowed upon her the unworthiest of thy Servants Lord redeem thy Right whereof thou hast been too long disseized by the World both in the Possessions and in the Person of thy Hand-maid And let this outward Seizure of Earth be accompanied with an inward Surprizal of the Heart and Spirit into thine own Hands So that the Restorer as well as that which is restored may become and be confirm'd thine Inheritance c. The Bishop pray'd to God that many such Customers might come to him so commended her free-will Offering to God and confirm'd it To make them some amends for their Liberality to the Church he devised how to give them Reputation against ad Detraction Therefore in the Spring that came after he gave them warning on what Sunday he would Preach in their Church whither an extreme Press of People resorted from all the Towns that heard of it In his Sermon he insisted most what it was to die unto the World that the Righteous should scarce be saved that our right Eye and our right Hand and all our fleshly Contentments must be cut off that we may enter into Life All tended to approve the dutiful and severe Life of the Farrars and of the Church that was in their House After Sermon the Bishop took their Invitation to Dine with them But they were so strict to keep that day holy that they left not a Servant at home to provide for the Table Yet it was handsomely furnish'd with that which was boil'd and bak'd that requir'd no Attendance to stay any one from Church to look to it By this visit the Bishop had the Means to see their way of serving God to know the Soundness of Doctrine which they maintain'd to read their Rules which they had drawn up for Fasts and Vigils and large Distributions of Alms In which he bad them proceed in the Name of God and gave them his Blessing at his departing From thenceforth these faithful ones flourish'd in good opinion For it is certain what Quintilian hath stated in Gratory Lib. 5. Nulla sunt firmiora quà m quae ex dubiis facta sunt corta The more a Case was doubted the clearer it is when the Doubt is resolv'd 52. Yet nothing is so sound but in time it will run into Corruption For I must not hold it in that some Persons in Little Giding
of God and because all that he is and hath is God's cannot render what he owes unto God in equality of Justice And all that he speaks of a Father in regard of his Children between whom Justice in one Acception doth not intercede he borrows out of Suarez Suarez out of Cajetan Cajetan out of Aquinas 2 vol. qu. 57. art 4. not art 8. as he misquotes him But he adds The King out of his own Brain who is but a metaphorical Father Benevolentiâ animo pater est naturâ rex pater non est says Saravia lib. 2. c. 12. without the Authority of his Authors nay flatly contrary to Aquinas in that place for he allows that Justice and Law may be stated between Father and Son Says he As the Son is somewhat of the Father and the Servant of the Master Justum non est inter illos per commensurationem ad Alterum sed in quantum uterque est homo aliquo modo est inter eos justitia He goes on That beside Father and Son Master and Servant there are other degrees and diversities of Persons to be sound in an Estate as Priests Citizens Souldiers c. that have an immediate relation to the Common-wealth and Prince thereof and therefore towards these Justum est secundum perfectam rationem justitiae So Suarez lib. 5. de leg c. 18. Some will say that Tribute is not due by way of Justice but by way of Obedience Hoc planè falsum est contra omnes Doctores qui satentur hanc obligationem solvendi tributa ubi intervenit esse justuiám And which is more than the Judgment of meer Man it is St. Paul's Rom. 13.7 For this cause pay your tribute render therefore to every man that which is his due Redditio sui cuique is the very definition of Justice And he makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justice to intercede between Fathers and their Children Ephes 6.1 Children obey your Parents in the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this is just This is the first Observation how he falsifieth his Learning The next is this That his end to bring us to the case of Creatures and Children towards the King is to take away all Propriety as it appears clearly by what he must draw out of his own Authors Suarez ubi supra Man cannot render to God his due by way of Justice Quia quicquid est vel habet totum est Dei Apply it with Dr. Maynwaring to the King Whatsoever the Subject is or hath is all the King 's by way of Property Aquinas in the place before Quod est filii est patris ideo non est propriè justitia patris ad filium Apply it to the King Justice doth not interceed between the King and his People because what is the Peoples is the King 's This is the Venom of this new Doctrine that by making us the King's Creatures and in the state of Minors or Children to take away all our Propriety Which would leave us nothing of our own and lead us but that God hath given us just and gracious Princes into Slavery As when the Jews were under a meer Vassalage their Levites their Churchmen complain to God The Kings of Assyria have dominion over our bodies and over our cattel at their pleasure Nehem. 9.37 Thus far the Bishop making very even parts between all that were concern'd in the Question And because the Chaplain's Doctrine had drawn up a Flood-gate through which a Deluge of Anger and Mischief gush'd out His Majesty left him to the Censure of his Judges No Wonder if one of the best of Kings did that Honour to his Senate which one of the worst of Emperors did to that at Rome Magistratibus liberam jurisdictionem sine interpellatione concessit says Suetonius of Caligula Neither had it been Wisdom to save one Delinquent with the loss of a Parliament Lurentius Medices gave better Counsel than so to his Son Peter Magis universitatis quà m seorsùm cujusque rationem habeto Polit. lib. 4. Ep. p. 162. Yet Dr. Maynwaring lost nothing at this lift his Liberty was presently granted him by the King his Fine remitted the Income of one Benefice sequestred for three years put all into his own Purse and was received in all his ordinary attendance again at Court with the Preferments of the Deanry of Worcester and after of the Bishoprick of St. Davids so willing was the King to forget that Clause in his Sentence past by the Lords which did forbid it 76. No man else suffering for so common a Grievance it made a glad Court at Whitehall The Parliament used their best Counsels and Discretions at the same time to secure their Lives Livelihoods and Liberties from such arbitrary Thraldom thereafter Nunquam fida est potentia ubi nimia est We must live under the Powers which God hath set over us but are loth that any man should have too much Power Sir Ed. Coke made the motion which will keep his noble Memory alive to sue to the King by Petition the most ancient and humble Address of Parliaments that His Majesty would give his People Assurance of their Rights by Assent in Parliament as he useth to pass other Acts viz. That none should be compell'd to any charge of Tax or Benevolence without agreement of Lords and Commons nor any Freeman be imprison'd but by the Law of the Land with some such other-like which are enter'd into many Authors The Duke of Buck. was forward to stop this Petition in the House where he sate for which the Commons having not yet meddled with him resolved to give him an ill Farewel before their parting Neither did he recover his old Lustre nor carry any great sway among the Peers since his dishonourable Expedition to Rhe for evil Successes are not easily forgotten though prosperous ones vanish in the warmth of their Fruition And not only that Duke and the Lord Privy-Seal with other great and able Officers did repulse this motion with all main but the King 's learned Council were admitted to plead their Exceptions against it Six weeks were spent in these Delays and Hope deserred made their hearts sick Prov. 13.12 and their Heads jealous who follow'd the cause that there was no good meaning to relieve their Oppressions At last the difficulty was overcome the Petitioners had one Answer from the King and look'd for a fuller and had it in the end So much sooner had been so much better as our Poet Johnson writes to Sir E. Sackvile of some mens Good-turns They are so long a coming and so hard When any Deed is forc'd the Grace is marr'd The Subjects ask'd for nothing now which was not their own but for Assurance to keep their own which had it been done with a Smile benignly and cheerfully and without any casting about to evade it it had been done Princely It is not impossible to find an honest Rule in Matchiavel for this is his Beneficia
illa quibus conciliatur plebis animus cò usque ne differantur donec ea praestare cogi videantur Passing right is Sir J. Haward's Hist of H. IV. p. 4. says he The Multitude are more strongly drawn by unprofitable Courtesies than by churlish Benefits Among those that argued for this Petition de Droit I shall remember what past from two eminent Prelates Archbishop Abbot offer'd his own Case to be consider'd banish'd from his own Houses of Croydon and Lambeth confin'd to a moorish Mansion-place of Foord to kill him debarr'd from the management of his Jurisdiction and no cause given for it to that time harder measure than ever was done to him in his Pedagogy for no Scholar was ever corrected till his Fault was told him But he had fuller'd the Lash in a Message brought by the Secretary and no cause pretended for it And what Light of Safety could be seen under such dark Justice The Bishop of Lincoln likewise promoted the Petition but he was a great Stickler for an Addition that it might come to the King's Hands with a mannerly Clause That as they desir'd to preserve their own Liberties so they had regard to leave entire that Power wherewith His Majesty was entrusted for the Protection of his People which the Commons disrelish'd and caused to be cancell'd This caused the Bishop to be suspected at first as if he had been sprinkled with some Court-holy-water which was nothing so but a due Consideration flowing from his own Breast that somewhat might be inserted to bear witness to the Grandeur of Majesty A Passage in Xenophon commends such unbespoken Service lib. 8. Cyrip says he Hystaspus would do all that Cyrus bade but Chrysantus would do all which he thought was good for Cyrus before he bade him 77. In the Debate of this great matter among the Lords this Bishop hath left under his own Pen what he deliver'd partly in glossing upon a Letter which His Majesty under the Signet sent to the House May the 12th partly in contesting with the chief Speakers that quarrel'd at the Petition As to the former First the King says That his Predecessors had never given Leave to the free Debates of the highest Points of Prerogative Royal. The Bishop answered The Prerogative Royal should not be debated at all otherwise than it is every Term in Westminster-hall Secondly the Letter objects What if some Discovery nearly concerning Matters of State and Government be made May not the King and his Council commit the Party in question without cause shewn For then Detection will dangerously come forth before due time Resp No matter of State or Government would be destroyed or defeated if the Cause be exprest in general terms And no danger can likely ensue if in three Terms the Matter be prepared to be brought to Trial. Ob. 3. May not some Cause be such as the Judges have no Capacity of Judicature or Rules of Law to direct or guide their Judgment Resp What can those things be which neither the Kings-bench nor Star-chamber can meet them Obj. 4. Is it not enough that we declare our Royal Will and Resolution to be which God willing we will constantly keep not to go beyond a just Rule and Moderation in any thing which shall be contrary to our Laws and Customs And that neither we nor our Council shall or will at any time hereafter commit or command to Prison for any other cause than doth concern the State the Publick Good and Safety of our People Resp Not the Council-Table but the appointed Judges must determine what are Laws and Customs and what is contrary to them And this gracious Concession is too indefinite to make us depend upon that broad Expression of Just Rule and Moderation Especially be it mark'd That all the Causes in the Kingdom may be said to concern either the State the Publick Good or the Safety of the King and People This under Favour is abundantly irresolute and signifies nothing obtain'd Obj. 5. In all Causes hereafter of this nature which shall happen we shall upon the humble Petition of the Party or Signification of our Judges unto us readily and really express the true cause of the Commitment so as with Conveniency and Safety it be fit to be disolosed And that in all Causes of ordinary Jurisdiction our Judges shall proceed to the delivery or bailment of the Prisoner according to the known and ordinary Rules of this Land and according to the Statutes of Magna Charta and those six Statutes insisted on which we intend not to abrogate or weaken according to the true intention thereof Resp To disclose the cause of Imprisonment except Conveniency and Safety do hinder are ambiguous words and may suffice to hold a man fast for coming forth And if all Causes be not of ordinary Jurisdiction as I hope they are who shall judge which be the extraordinary Causes We are lost again in that Uncertainty So likewise for the Intention of Magna Charta and the six Statutes who shall judge of the true Intention of them That being arbitrary we are still in nubibus for any assurance of legal Liberty So the Concessions of His Majesty's Letter were waved as unsatisfactory 78. And the Bishop went on to shew that the Contents of the Petition were suitable to the ancient Laws of the Realm ever claimed and pleaded expedient for the Subject and no less honourable for the King which made him a King of Men and not of Beasts of brave-spirited Freemen and not of broken-hearted Peasants The Statute in 28 Edw. 3. is as clear for it as the day at Noon-tide That no man of what state or condition soever shall be put out of his Lands or Tenements nor taken nor imprison'd nor disinherited nor put to death without being brought to answer by due process of Law I know one Lord replied to this lately That the Law was wholsom for the good of private men and sometime it might be as wholsom for the Publick Weal that the Soveraign Power should commit to Custody some private man the cause not being shew'd in Law upon more beneficial occasion than a private man's legal Liberty And though the Hand of Power should seem to be hard upon that one person a Benefit might redound to many First be it consider'd if no Law shall be fixt and inviolable but that which will prevent all Inconveniencies we must take Laws from God alone and not from men Then be it observ'd that to bring the exception of a Soveraign Power beside the Laws in Cases determined in the Laws takes away all Laws when the King is pleas'd to use and put forth this Soveraign Power wherewith he is trusted and makes the Government purely arbitrary and at the Will of the King So shall this Reason of State eat up and devour the Reason of Laws Shew me he that can how the affirmation of a Soveraign Power working beside the Law insisted upon shall not bring our Goods and our
Parliament and in that Parliament to which he appealed he sits a Member and Peer and sees all Papers of Record against him torn and burnt to Ashes Ut advertas feliciter faclum reum quem sic videas absolutum Sym. Ep. 87. Be the Conclusion those words of Ezek. c. 17. v. 24. All the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree have exalted the low true have dried up the green tree and have made the dry tree to flourish Which the great Poet had rather ascribe to a blind Goddess in his Poetical License Aen. 12. Multos alterna revisens Lusit in solidum rursus fortuna locavit 131. A Prisoner whose Liberty I much long'd for is released but out of Limbo into Hell Can the worst word be had enough for those fatal days Now being come with him as far as the Door of the Parliament into which he entred upon the Call of the Lords I turned away for no little time and interrupted my self for above two years from writing any more not out of Sloth but Disdain To part with him till his last day was against my purpose and to keep him company in those boisterous times wherein a Senate of rigid men was dangerous I was at such a stay as Alexander in the dry Country of the Susitans Pigebat consistere progredi Curt. lib. 7. It was contrary to the Project of my Work to stop and as contrary to my Mind to go forward in the Hurricane of an intemperate Rebellion But it is resolved to look over somewhat of one of the most bloody Tragedies that ever was performed on the Earth rather than omit his part who was so loyal in his Actings and so magnanimous in his Sufferings And this may be done with the less unwillingness from one Passage that will recreate the Writer and the Reader that the chief Engineers that wrought the Thunderbolts at the Forge and laid the foundation of all ensuing Mischief lived to see themselves thrust out of their Den by a Brewers Drayman with his tatter'd Regiment a Passage to be kept for ever upon the Engravings of Memory and would not be pleasant but burdensome to know it and not to publish it As Archytas of Tarentum said If a man were lifted up among the Stars to know their order and motion the knowledge of it so admirable would be ingrate unto him unless he met with some to whom he might relate it So I am full of this to tell it to Posterity That the pittiful handful of Lords Temporal and now Temporary that adhered not to the King and cashiered the Lords Spiritual out of their Society for their immovable Fidelity were dismounted for ever from their own Privilege and Honour and might pawn their Parliament-Robes if they pleased And the remainder of the Commons after Pride's Purge was so despicable that every Tongue was so audacious to give them the nick-name of the Posteriors of a Beast and they put it up lest angry Wits should paste a greater Scorn upon them As Cas Severus satisfied himself with the Downfal of his Adversary Vivo quo vivere libeat Asprenatem reum video Quintil. lib. II. So this one Scene hath a good Catastrophe in the cruel Interlude That the small but most spightful part of this continuing Parliament held up their Tail though not their Hand at the Bar and went out it self in such a stink in the Snuff that all cry sie at it that have their Nostrils opened So my Mind is collected again and my Heart at some Peace in it self to see the Honour of Heavenly Justice settled so far 132. And to Preface no more and no less could be said A Parliament was sitting when our Bishop had his Liberty which held in its Fragments twelve years and six months Nay when the stub of the Members were baffled and spurn'd out of the House by the Russian Cromwell these Bankrupts opened their Shop once again and by a post limintum recover'd their places so that we reckon nineteen years from their first Call to their last Suppression Umbra serotina A shadow is longest at Evening when the Sun is ready to set And our Sun went down quickly when this shadow was so far extended But there is a better similitude for it in Pliny Nat. Hist lib. 2. cap. 14. A Serpent was taken at the River Bagrada of 120 foot long and the skin says he was hung up in the Capitol as long as such stuff could endure Mark this a Serpent the longest that ever was heard of the skin kept when it was mortified and preserved in the Senate-house Who can miss to apply it A Serpentine brood of Men none ever lasting so long in that High Court withered away to a skin or Skeleton all were right if they had been hung up in the Capitol This Serpent was young and the worst it could do was to hiss when Lincoln was brought in to sit with his fellow Bishops He had not been many hours there when he was amazed to see divers composed of new and strong Passions instigated to boldness by Scotch Confederacy heightned up by the Petitions and Mutinies of City and Country and preach't into disorder by Presbyterian Divines For a muffled Zeal for Religion hath a finger in all Combustions And as one says Multitudo vana superstitione capta meliùs vatibus quà m ducibus suis paret Curt. lib. 3. Church-men are the most dangerous Instruments to turn Male-contents into Sword-men who being prepossest with an ill opinion of the Times will quickly humble their Judgment under the Conscience of their Ministers But what Credit can it be to our Bishop for such Peers to take him into their number by their peremptory Vote None if he had answer'd their expectation Yet his chief Friends were as faithful and noble-hearted as ever sate upon the Benches of the House And it is no good thrist to cast out Gold-filings with the dust as if all were dust These must be sever'd from the rest to their immortal praise It is as true that he was sought for by some of the rest who had only an eye to the North-Star of their own Anti-monarchical Interest For he that was ordinarily read in man might know this able Prelate was to be left out that had so general an insight into all Affairs and Motions of State As Zeno prais'd Ismenias his Musick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he could play well upon all Instruments But when the disloyal Part hoped that a Man of a great Spirit and so much injur'd would revenge himself upon the Causes of his Troubles and Pipe after their Tune they were overshot to imagine it Though he is bound to be most true that is most trusted yet no man was bound to be true to them whom his Majesty as appears by his Writ trusted with his most concerning and weighty Counsels and were false to him that gave them Capacity to treat upon them
to be re-examin'd after Issue joyn'd in case they recover'd A particular Charge being laid before you when the House of Commons is a Party and the Charge of so high a nature as Treason I shall not advise this Honourable House to use any Chiquancery or Pettisoggery with this great Representation of the Kingdom but admit them forthwith to examine their own Members yet with this Caution To hew the Names two days before they be produced to the Sollicitor of the Defendant that he may have notice of the persons But the House press for Secrecy in the Examination Well they are safe enough while they are in the Lord's hands who have Urim and Thummim perfect Knowledge and perfect Integrity and therefore nothing can be suspected Are not they surer than other Officers In ordinary Commissions out of Star-Chamber my Lord Ellsmore would not allow that any Clerks should be used to prevent Futility and Evaporation saying That the best Commissioner in England was not too good to be the King's Clerk Secondly I am as'kt about the Examination of the Peers and the Assistants of this House upon Oath There is no question to be made about the Assistants they are no Peers of this Kingdom but whether Peers may be produced as Witnesses and testifie upon Oath A question not sit to be now handled and impossible to be resolved out of the Rolls of the Parliament because the Peers give their Testimony both in this Court and others either way And I am confident a Peers Averment against his Fellow Peer cannot be refused either way especially in case of Treason For a Peer judgeth his Peer worthy of Death upon his Honour and therefore may witness against him upon his Honour In this Court and almost in this Case in Alze Pierce her Case 1 Rich. 2. Num. 21. Lord Roger Beauchamp swears upon the Holy Evangelists The Lord of Lancaster King of Castile and Leon is examin'd but not sworn Nay both ways have been declar'd in this House to be all one Your Lordships declaring that you did not bound limit or terminate your Assertion with your Honour but mount it and relate it up unto God that gave you your Honour and yielded your selves perjur'd if you falsisied in swearing upon Honour which is just the very same as if you sware upon the Holy Evangelists To swear upon Honour and rest there were Idolatry But to swear upon Honour with a Report and Relation to God who bestowed it upon your Lordships as a special Favour and Grace is as Christian an Oath as any in the World For new Scruples in the manner as to touch the Book to look on the Book to hold up a Finger or Hand to Heaven are Ceremonies which the House of Commons little regards but leaves them to us And the Lord of Strafford is so wise that he will never question the Honour of his Peers And why should we trouble our selves about the circumstance but leave each Lord called to testisie to call God as a Witness to his Assertion in which of these two manners it shall please his Lordship Not the Book not the Honour but the Invocation of God to bear witness to the Assertion makes the Oath 144. I am put to it by your Lordships to speak in the third place about the examination of Privy Councillors Here needs no distinction between Peers and Assistants This is part of a Privy Councillor's Oath That he shall keep secret all matters committed and revealed to him or that shall be treated of in Council 2. If any Treaty touch his fellow-Councillor he shall not reveal it unto him till the King or Council shall require it I collect now that matters of Fact he may reveal without violation of his Oath and that he may be examin'd of matters revealed unto him that were treated of in Council if they were not treated of in Council when he was present That a Privy-Councillor for all his Oath may be examin'd concerning Words Advices or Opinions of another Privy-Councillor otherwise given than in Council That Bed-chamber and Gallery Discourse is nothing to the Council-Table Private Entertainers of the King when the Counsellors attend at the Door are not to pass for Counsellors Ear-wiggs and Whisperers are no Counsellors but detracters from Counsellors If they advise the Destruction of the King the State or the Laws of the Realm there is nothing in the Oath to protect such an Ear-worm but he may be appeached For matters which touch another fellow-Councillor or matters committed otherwise to him or which shall be treated of in Council these are not to be concealed from all forts of men but from private men only not from the King not from the Council both those are in the Oath nor from the Parliament That Privy-Councillots may be examin'd by Command of the Parliament for things treated in Council 2. for things revealed unto them secretly from the King in his Bed-chamber 3. and especially for ear-wigging and treating with the King in private after things already settled in Council The Case of Alze Pierce 1 Rich. II. num 41. clears all these Doubts And it is the Case also of a Deputy of Ireland William of Windsor Lord-Deputy misbehaved himself in Ireland the Council directs Sir Nicholas Dagworth to go thither and to enquire into his Actions Windsor makes means to Alze Pierce to keep off this man under pretence of Enmity betwixt them This Shunamite that lay in David's Bosom prevails with the King to stay Sir N. Dagworth the Council-Order notwithstanding The Lords in Parliament question her for this act as having drawn with it the Ruin of the State in Ireland She pleads not guilty Issue is joyned The Lords produce inter alios John Duke of Lancaster upon his Honor and Roger Beauchamp Lord Chamberlain upon the Evangelists Alze produceth of her part the Steward and Comptroller of the Houshold All these four were Privy-Counsellors they depose all of them nothing else but matters treated of in Council and opposed by Alze Pierce treating with the King out of Council So that if this Record be true this Case is cleared Privy-Councillors may not be forced by ordinary Courts of Justice to reveal things treated of in Council but may be produced upon Oath and Honour to reveal such Secrets by the King the Council or the Parliament especially in detestation of Statewhisperers and Ear-wiggs yea though they had taken no Oath at all Yet God forbid a Privy-Counsellor should witness against his Fellow for publickly venting the freedom of his Judgment at the Board who is bound to advise faithfully not wisely as I do here this day Should any man be accused for an Error of Judgment O God defend peradventure my Error hath set all the rest of the Council straight Errores antiquorum venerari oportet si illi non errassent minùs ipse providissem otherwise you would take away all Freedom of Debates nay almost of very Thoughts If I knew any man
would witness against me for my Council-Table Opinion I would say to him as Gallus did to Tyberius Caesar Good Sir speak you first for I may mistake and you may witness against me for it in the next Parliament Some did make Laws with Ropes about their Necks What Must men give their Counsel as it were with Ropes about their Necks Solomon says When thou comest to a rich man's table put a knife to thy Throat But what 's here When we give Judgment as we are able among the Lords of the Council must we put an Ax to our Necks Beware of such Traps pittying the case of human Weakness 145. The fourth Question is thus comprized Whether some Members of the House of Commons may be present at the Examination Judicially they cannot the Judicature is in your Lordships but whether organically and ministerially is the Scruple to be satisfied I will be brief in my Conceptions what is against the claim of the House of Commons and what is for them This is not for them That 50 Edw. 3. one Love was a Witness in Lord John Nevile's Case Love denied what he had confest before two Knights Members of the Lower House The House of Commons send them to the Lords to confront Love which they did and Love was thereupon committed Now their being here was only to confront not to assist the Lords either judicially or ministerially Many things make for them why they may be there ministerially at least First Originally both Houses were together and so the Commons heard all Examinations Considerent inter se Modus ten Pl. and sate so till Anno 6 Edw. 3. by Mr. Elsing's Collections which are not over-authentick Secondly After that time they have all the House of Commons been present when Witnesses were sworn here Anno 5 Hen. IV. Rot. 11. swears his Fealty before the Lords and Commons and two or three days after by the same Oath and before the same persons clears the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of York from a Suspicion of Treason laid to their charge The Commons were by and heard all this The third Reason is Mr. Attorny-General if this Lord were arraigned of Treason as I pray God bless him from deserving it would be by and observe his Defence and such Witnesses as he should produce for himself and would no doubt bring Counter proofs Sur le Champ and upon the sudden against the same if he were able The House of Commons is in this case the King's Attorny who make and maintain the charge So far out of brief Notes for take them to be no other you have a strong Judgment pass'd upon four Questions Says Tully in his Brutus of Caesar's Eloquence Tabulam benè pictam collocat in bono lumine He draws his Picture well and hangs it out to be well seen So here 's a Piece well drawn and placed in the light of Perspicuity His next Argument is very long but of that use to the Reader that he shall not sind so much Learning in any Author on that Theme that I know a Scholar would not want it They that fostered deadly Enmities against E. Strafford laboured to remove the Bishops from the hearing of his Cause This Bishop and his Brethren minding to him all the Pity and Help they could shew him the Opposites began to vote them out of Doors and would not admit them in the Right of Peers in this Cause because it was upon Life and Blood Lincoln maintains that the Lords did them Injury and that Bishops in England may and ought to vote in causâ sanguinis That they were never inhibited by the Law of this Land never by the Peers of the Land before this time That their voluntary forbearance in some Centuries of the Ages before proceeded from their Fears of the Canons of the Court of Rome and by the special Leave of the King and both Houses who were graciously pleased to allow of their Protestations for their Indemnity as Church-men when the King and Parliament might have rejected their Protestations if they had pleas'd And much he insisted upon it that the opponent Lords grounded their Judgment upon the corrupt Canons of the Church of Rome Indeed I find in my own Papers that the Monks of Canterbury complain'd against Hubert their Archbishop to the Pope for sitting upon Tryals of Life and Blood They could not complain that he went against the Laws and Customs of England but their Appeal was to the Pope's Justice and it was more tolerable for Monks to rake in the Rubbish of the Roman Courts than for English Barons And say in sooth must not Divines of the Reformed Church meddle in Cause of Blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amph. Would they be laugh'd at for this Hypocrisie or abhorr'd For who more forward to thrust into the Troops of the late War than the Ministers whom they countenanc'd Have I not seen them prance about the Streets in London with Pistols in their Holsters and Swords by their sides And so for Edg-hill and Newberry c. Could they rush into so many Fights and be clear from cause of Blood Nay the Pontisical part make but a Mockery of this Canon for anno 1633 a Book was printed in Paris sill'd with a Catalogue of Cardinals Bishops and Priests who had been brave Warriours most of them Leaders in the Field the Author a Sycophant aimed to please Cardinal Richlieu and a Fig for the Canons Reason Canons Parliamentary Privileges nay Religion are to corrupt men as they like them for their own ends Now hear how this Bishop did wage his Arguments for the affirmative 146. It is to be held for a good Cause against which nothing of moment can be alledg'd such is this concerning the Right of Bishops to vote in causâ sanguinis First It is not prohibitum quia malum not any way evil in it self no more than it is an evil thing in it self to do Justice Secondly It was in use from the Law of Nature when the eldest of the Family was King Priest and Prophet Thirdly It was in use under Moses's Law and so continued in the Priests and Levites down to Annas and Caiaphas and after Christ's death till the Temple was destroyed as appears by the scourging of the Apostles by the stoning of Stephen and commanding St. Paul to be smitten on the Mouth Fourthly It was in use in the persons of the Apostles themselves as in that Judgment given upon Ananias and Saphira in the delivery up to Satan as most of the ancient Fathers expound that Censure to be a corporal Vexation And generally in all the Word of God there is no one Text that literally inhibits Church-men more than Lay-men to use this kind of Judicature For that Precept to be no striker 1 Tim. 3.3 is no more to be appropriated to a Bishop distinct from the rest of Christian men than that which is added not to be given to Wine that is immoderately taken Proceed we
in the Records of the Tower can be produced to exclude the Lords Spiritual from sitting and voting in Causes of Blood Sometimes by the great Favour of the King Lords and Commons not otherwise they were permitted to absent themselves never before now commanded by the Lay-Lords to forbear their Votes in any Cause that was agitated in Parliament So our Law Books say That the Prelates by the Canon-Law may make a Procurator in Parliament when a Peer is to be tryed Which is enough to shew their Right thereunto This is to be seen 10 Edw. IV. f. 6. placit 17. And That it is only the Canon-Law that inhibits them to vote in Sanguinary Causes Stamford Pleas of the Crown f. 59. And saith Stamford the Canon-Law is a distinct and separated notion and not grown in his Age to any such Usance or Custom as made it Common-Law or the Law of the Land 152. Coming now to an end it moves me little what some object That many worthy Fathers of this Church-reformed and Bishop Andrews among the rest did forbear to vote in Causes of Blood and voluntarily retired out of the House if such things came in question nor did offer to enter any Protestation I do not doubt but they had pious Affections in it though they did not fully ponder what they did I have heard that a main Reason was that of the Record and Statute of 11 Rich. II. That it is the honesty of that Calling not to intermeddle in matters of Blood Now the French word Honesty signifies Decency and Comeliness As though it were a butcherly and a loathsom matter to be a Judge or to do Right upon a Malefactor to Death or loss of Members But this is an imaginary Decency never known in Nature or Scripture as I said before but begotten by Tradition in the dark Foggs and Mists of Popery Such an Honesty of the Clergy it was to have a shaven Crown to depend on the Pope to plead Exemptions and to resuse to answer for Felonies in the King's Courts All these were esteemed in those days the Honesty of the Clergy And such an Honesty it was in the Prelates of England in the loose Reign of Rich. II to absent themselves when they listed from the Aslembly of the Estate contrary to the King's Command in the Writ of Summons and to the Duties of their places as Peers of Parliament Yet they had more insight into what they did than some of our Bishops for they never offer'd to retire themselves in those days before their Protestation was benignly received and suffer'd to be enter'd upon the Parliament-Roll by the King the Lords and the House of Commons I know those excellent men that are with God proposed other Scruples to themselves they doubted not of the Legality or Comeliness for an Ecclesiastical Peer of the Kingdom of England to vote in a Judgment of Blood they did it continually in passing all Appeals and Attainders in Parliament but it startled them because it is not the practice of Prelates in other parts of the Christian Church so to do and thought it better to avoid Scandal and the Talk of other Nations That there being in the High Court of Parliament and Star-chamber Judges enough beside them they might without any prejudice to their King and Country forbear voting in those Judicatures somewhat the rather because all our Bishops in England are Divines and Preachers of the Gospel and consequently to be employ'd in Mercy rather than in Judgment who never touch upon the sharpness of the Law unless it be to prepare mens Hearts to relish and receive the comfort of the Gospel Let the Piety then and the Good-meaning of those grave Fathers be praised but I say they forgot their Duty to the Writ of the King's Summons and the use and weight of their Place And now to close I protest without vaunting I cannot perceive how this can be answer'd which I have digested together And if so many Bishops cannot obtain their Right which is so clear on their side God send the Earl of Strafford better Justice who is but a single Peer 153. Blame not my Book that there is so much of this Argument I hope the Ignorant will not read it at all but let a knowing man read it again and when he hath better observ'd it he will think it short Some History-spoilers have detracted from our Bishop that though he pleaded much in Parliament to his own Peril in the behalf of E. Strafford yet he wrought upon the King to consent to give way to his beheading Says our Arch-Poet Spencer lib. 3. Can. 1. st 10. Great hazard were it and Adventure fond To lose long-gotten Honour with one evil Hand But he shall lose no Honour in this for first as Nazian Or. 27 rejects them that had raised an ill Report of him whom he praised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can you prove that they were sound in their mind that said so if any will believe it from such authors a good man hath lost his thanks Ego quod bené fec◠malè feci quia amor mutavit locum Plautus That which was well done is ill done because it is not lovingly requited Hear all and judge equally Both the Houses of Lords and Commons by most Voices found the Earl guilty of Treason they made the greater Quire but those few that absolved him sung better The King interceded by himself by the Prince his Son to save him craved it with Cap in Hand Being founder'd in his Power he could go no further the Subjects denied their Soveraign the Life of one Man so Strafford must be cast away Opimii calamitas turpitudo Po. Rom. non judicium fuit Cic. pro Plancio Whose Calamity is the shame of English Justice His Majesty for divers days could not find in his Heart to set his Hand to the Warrant for Execution for Conscience dresseth it self by its own light And I would he had been as constant to his own Judgment in other things that we might remember it to his Honour as Capitolinus testifies for Maximus Non aliis potiùs quà m sibi credidit The fate of it was that the Parliament would not grant Mercy to the Earl and would have Justice from the King according to their Sentence whether he would or no They threaten and were as good as their Word to sit idle and do nothing for publick Safety and Settlement the whole Realm being in distraction till the Stroke was struck All the Palace-Yard and Hall were daily full of Mutineers and Outcries His Majesty's Person was in danger the roguy Off-scum in the Streets of Westminster talk'd so loud that there was cause to dread it Though there is nothing more formidable than to fear any thing more than God yet the most eminent Lords of the Council perswaded His Majesty to make no longer resistance Placeat quodcunque necesse est Lucan lib. 4. Not he but Necessity should be guilty of it If he did
Malt that cost most so you reckon their fitness to preach upon the score of their Gifts but Where is their Calling Where is their Ordination Cooks or Butchers have a Gift to dress a Beast yet God would admit none but Priests to make ready his Sacrifice And if you mean by Gifts Learning and Knowledge I am perswaded if these your Chaplains had them they would give them away again if they could Learning is that which they decry as a mark of the Beast Qui omnes sui similes esse cupiunt ut privata eâ—runt inscitia sub câ—mmuni delitescat says Erasmus I spend too much time to pull down a Sconce of Sand I have no more to answer to but to them that bid me speak well of these and pity them because they are ignorant and mean well I report that of Bernard to it Ut liberius peccent libenter ignorant They are willingly ignorant that they may be wilfully factious And through what Loop-hole doth their Good-meaning appear In Railings or Blasphemies I will never impute a Good meaning unto them so long as I see no such thing in their Fruits unless God shall say so at the last day God grant to this Parliament a Good-meaning to reform these Abuses and to act it with their Wisdom and Power for I have heard some say that Hell is full of them that had nothing but good purposes This which the Bishop did then deliver I may call his visiting of the Parliament and you have both what he acted in his Diocess and what he spake at a Conference of both Houfes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I may borrow it out of Nazian upon another Athanasius He exceeded the most eloquent in Eloquence and the most active in Practice For all this good Warning our great Commanders in the Belly of the Trojan Horse mended nothing Nay in about a year and half after this they sequestred the choicest Divines of the Kingdom from their Livings and many of these Mechanicks supplied their places At Wimbleton not far from me a Warrener propounded to Thomas Earl of Exeter That he should have a Burrough of Rabbets of what colour he pleased Let them be all white skinned says that good Earl The Undertaker killed up all the rest and fold them away but the white lair and left not enough to serve the Earl's Table The application runs full upon a worthy Clergy who were destroy'd to make room for white-skinn'd Pole-cats that came in with a strike and so will go out 158. But the King is come home again who could not work the Scots to his own plight or obtain any thing from that ungovern'd Nation Here he found his Bishops design'd to Undoing and the Parliament would sit his Patience out till it was effected An unlimited Concession Utinam promissa liceret non dare Metam lib. 2. forfeits the Giver himself to those that have received the Privilege from him The Houses stand not upon Reasons but Legislative Votes Reasons no God wot As Camerar says of sorry Writers in vt Melan. Miseri homines mendicant argumenta nam si mercarentur profectò meliora afferrent They beg the Cause for if they purchas'd it with Arguments they would bring better If they have no other Proofs there were many in the Pack that could fetch them from Inspiration Or obtrude a Point of Conscience and then there is no disputing for it cannot live no more than a longing Woman if it have not all it gapes for They ask it for a great-bellied Conscience to which in Humanity you must deny nothing His Majesty was mainly afflicted both that an unseasonable Bar was devising against all the Clergy to intermeddle in any secular Affairs especially that the Bishops Places of which they were so anciently possest in Parliament were heaved at which came near to the lessening or worse of his own Royalty He knew they were joyned in such a couplement as the removing of the one endanger'd the other Grotius says it was the Judgment of a wife and mighty Prince Charles the Fifth Caesari persuasum conculcatâ sacerdotum reverentiá ne ipsi quidem mansurum obsequium Annal. p. 11. What did persuade the Emperor to think so Not because his Clergies Revenues are at his devotion to help him more than other mens or that they were learned and able to dispute his Right and Title with his Enemies or that their Interest did legally keep his Throne from tottering but because commonly the King and the Prelates have the same Enemies and the Constitution of them both is much at one for he that thinks a Bishop is too much a Potentate over the Ministry is yellow with Disdain against Superiority and is prepared to conceive that a free Monarch is too glorious a Creature over the People The King therefore exprest his Patronage as much as he could to that Holy Order and exalted some worthy men to Bishopricks in vacant Places and among others translated the Bishop of Lincoln to be Archbishop of the Province of York This is that man whose Life was so full of Variety Quod consul toties exulque ex exule consul says Manilius of Marius He was advanced to great Honours very young half of his Pomps cut off within five years lay four years current in the Tower sequestred of all and very near to be deprived of all and of a sudden recovers his Liberty and a higher Place than ever That of Patercu upon the City of Capua is very like or the same Mirum est tam maturè tantam urbem crevisse floruisse â—ccidisse resurrexisse His Sufferings his great Name and Worth his Service done daily at that time for the King and Church did deservedly prefer him before divers that were of great merit So Synesius said of Antonius Ep. 68. that was chosen when many were in nomination for a Bishoprick and all worthy of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It gave him great Reputation to be accounted better than them that were very good And for a Surplusage the King granted him to hold the Deanry of Westminster in Commendam for three years that he might not be displaced out of his House while he attended at that great Meeting His Majesty expecting it would not live above three years but it had as many Lives as a Cat and lasted longer And York after twice three months never saw his Deanry more This Parliament meaning to sit till the Day of Doom wanted to their full Power and Pleasure to be rid of their Company whom they liked not which the Commons could not effect for their part till they held out the Gorgon's Head of the Covenant The Lords would not stay so long but prepared a Bill and read it to reject the Bishops from being Spiritual Peers of the Upper House But what Pincers will they pluck them out withal First with the Resorts Petitions and Ragings of the People What the People that seditious Beast Cupidum novarum rerum ctio quieti
that saving unto themselves all their Rights and Interests of Sitting and Voting in the House at other times they dare not Sit or Vote in the House of Peers until your Majesty shall further secure them from all Affronts Indignities and Dangers in the Premisses Lastly Whereas their Fears are not built upon Phantasies and Conceipts but upon such Grounds and Objects as may well terrifie men of good Resolutions and much Constancy They do in all duty and humility protest before your Majesty and the Peers of the most Honourable House of Parliament against all Laws Orders Votes Resolutions and Determinations as in themselves null and of none effect which in their absence since the 27th of this Instant-month of Decemb. 1641 have already passed As likewise against all such as shall hereafter pass in that most Honourable House during the time of their forced and violent absence from the said most Honourable House Not denying but if their absenting of themselves were wilful and voluntary that most Honourable House might proceed in all the Premisses their Absence or this Protestation notwithstanding And humbly beseeching your most Excellent Majesty to command the Clerk of that House of Peers to enter this Petition and Protestation amongst his Records They will ever pray to God to bless and preserve c. Subscribed by Joh. Eborac Tho. Dunelm Ro. Cov. and Lich. Jos Norwicen Joh. Asaphensis Gul. Bath Wellen. Geo. Hereford Rob. Oxen. Matth. Elien Godfr Glocestr Job Petroburg Maur. Landoven 169. Hear and admire ye Ages to come what became of this Protestation drawn up by as many Bishops as have often made a whole Provincial Council They were all call'd by the Temporal Lords to the Bar and from the Bar sent away to the Tower Nonne fuit satius tristes formidinis iras Atque superba pati fastidia A rude World when it was safer to do a Wrong than to complain of it The People commit the Trespass and the Sufferers are punish'd for their Fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen. lib. 9. A Proverb agreeing to the drunken Feasts of the Greeks If the Cook dress the Meat ill the Minstrils are beaten That day it broke forth that the largest part of the Lords were fermentated with an Anti-episcopal Sourness If they had loved that Order they would never have doomed them to a Prison and late at night in bitter Frost and Snow upon no other Charge but that they presented their Mind in a most humble Paper to go abroad in safety Ubi amor condimentum inerit quidvis placiturum spero Plaut in Casin Love hath a most gentle hand when it comes to touch where it loves Here was no sign of any silial respect to their Spiritual Fathers Nothing was offer'd to the Peers but the Substance was Reason the Style lowly the Practice ancient yet upon their pleasure without debate of the Cause the Bishops are pack'd away the same night to keep their Christmas in Durance and Sorrow And when this was blown abroad O how the Trunch-men of the Uproar did fleer and make merry with it But the Disciples of the Church of England took it very heavily not for any thing the good Bishops had done but for that they suffer'd for a Prisoner is not a Name of Infamy but Calamity Poena damnati non peccati Cic. pro Dom. Estque pati poenam quà m meruisse minùs Ovid. lib. 1. de Pont. Nothing can be more equal than to lay the Objections the Lords made and York's Answers for the Protestation together as they go from Hand to Hand to this day in Town and City And let the Children judge what their Fathers did if they read this hereafter Obj. 1. That the Petition is false the Lords did not sit in Fear as my Lord of Worcester Winchester London Nor was it the Petition of all the Bishops about London and Westminster not of Winchester London Rochester Worcester 〈◊〉 If this were true yet were it not Treason against any Canon or Statute-Law but the Fact is otherwise First the Fear complained against is not for the time of their Sitting in the House but for the time of their coming unto and going from the said House and it is easie to prove they were then in Fear Secondly They know best whether they were in Fear or no who subscribed or agreed to the Petition And my Lord of Winchester agreed in it as much as the rest and instanced in the cause of his Fear his chasing to Lambeth Thirdly For the other part of the Objection the Bishop of London was then at Fulham Rochester in Kent Worcester at Oxford nor doth the Title of the Petition comprehend them as not being about London and Westminster Winchester did agree thereunto and came thither to subscribe and it was resolved his Name should have been called for ere ever it was to be solemnly preferred to the King which was never intended to be but when the King sate in the Upper House of the Lords which the Bishops intended to pray His Majesty to do And this appears by the Superscription of the Petition Obj. 2. The nulling of all Laws to be made at this time that the Kingdom of Ireland was in jeopardy was a conspiring with the Rebels to destroy that Kingdom and so amounted to Treason or a high Misdemeanour 〈◊〉 1. A Protestation annulleth no Law but so far as the Law shall extend to the Parties protesting Nor so far but in case that the Parties protesting shall afterward judicially prove their right to annull that Law So that it was impossible any Protestation of the Bishops should actually intend to hinder the Relief of Ireland 2 The Relief of Ireland by 10000 Scots and 10000 English was voted and concluded long before this Protestation and all the Particulars of that great business referr'd to a Committee of both Houses and the Bishops unanimously assented thereto So that the Relief of Ireland comes not within the Date and Circumscription of this Protestation And the Bishops call God to witness they never conceived one Thought that way 3. The Bishops protested against no Laws or Orders at all to be annulled absolutely and for all the time of this Session of Parliament simply but for that space of time only wherein they should be forcibly and violently kept from the said Parliament by those rude and unruly People So that as soon as the King and the Lords did quiet their passage unto Parliament which the Lords did do before this Petition was read in Parliament and that any of the Bishops were present there the Protestation was directly null and of none effect so as indeed the Protestation was void and dead in Law before the L. Keeper brought the Petition in question into the House because the Bishop of Winchester and some others had even then quiet access unto that Honourable House And the Bishops conceived the Protestation void in such a case and do most humbly wave and revoke the same and humbly desire both
turn'd to be in five months after Better be alone than ill accompanied And if that World last still they will never wear out the Disgrace by Repealing that infamous Bill I were wicked if I wisht it not otherwise but foolish if I did hope it I bewail not York more than I do the rest Nihil est praecipuè cuiquam dolendum in eo quod accidit universis Cic. lib. 6. Ep. ad Torquatum Now when the worst was done the merciful Judges in Parliament gave the Bishops their Liberty And most of those Grey-heads sled from London or were imprison'd in no long distance of time upon it In May after York went away privily to seek the King and never return'd again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diodor. Sic. lib. 13. Few men ever lived whose lives had more Paradoxes in them But from that day his Afflictions were constant to him and never lent him pause or intermission of Peace Qui per virtutem peritat pol non interit The Gail of Anguish is the Cup of Salvation to him that gives thanks unto the Name of the Lord. 171. London was no place to contain the Lords and Gentry that remembred they were sworn to be faithful to the Crown when it was known that the King had sat down in the City of York Many came seasonably thither many made ready for it and were stopt abundance sent their Purse the Poor and well-meaning sent their hearts who would have failed beyond the Cape of Neutrality and cast Anchor on the King's shore if their Company could have brought profit or service Our Archbishop of that Province came with the first being as restless as Tully was to leave Rome in the stirs of Pompey Hinc ipse evolare cupio ut aliquo perveniam ubi nec Pelopidarum nomen nec facta audiam Lib. ep fam He had been translated from Lincoln to this Dignity seven months before He that gives a Promotion to a worthy man obligeth all men and this was marvellously well taken by all the Clergy of the Diocess Until that day he had not seen the place from which he was entitled which he had proposed to be the Scene wherein he would do the part of an Archbishop in great splendor His Means were sufficient his Inclinations very hospital Provisions abundant in that Country the Gentry addicted to Liberality or rather Profuseness no man was ever so cut out to please them since Alex. Nevil's days for magnificence But God prevented it that he could never settle his Houshold in Yorkshire as he desired He found every thing looking with a face of Confusion the gallantry of the South poured into the North not to begin a War but ready for the defensive part as was expected There are Mischiefs approaching when common bodings misgive them which were not discerned soon enough through fatal Security before they were ripened As Budaeus writes of France upon the first breaking out of Wars at home That France wanted eyes and ears and which is strange they wanted a Nose Qui cladem adventantem odorari ante non potuimus quà m ab eâ oppressi Lib. 4. de Asse fol. 110. The Presbyterians those Scalda-banco's or hot Declamers had wrought a great distast in the Commons at the King and at all that had his ear and favour The Age growing Learned and Knowledge puffing up Scholars grew more impudent and malapert with us and in every state than did become their Function Our much Peace which had lasted almost two Jubilees was seeded with great Vice in our manners Young men lived idly which made them want and therefore were ready for Bustles and Commotions to boot-hale and consume they that proposed to themselves no laborious kind of Life expected Alterations and then to have enough to lavish And not a few of these were of good Houses decayed that as one says Had ancient Coats of all colours but lack't Argent and Ore Tempestuous weather was sit for their Harvest And when Wars broke out they crept out of their Cranies like the Cimici in the Houses of Italy not of rotten Bedsteds But the Parliament our continual Hectick did lend their Arm to all Mischief to usher it in They could not bow the King to all their Votes and abase him to be contented with a shadow of Soveraignty therefore they ranged every thing to a War as palpably as if their Drums and Colours had been in the Fields Bacchae Bacchanti si velis adversarier Insanam insaniorem facies feriet saepiùs Plauti Frag. Their Motions now were not Mutinies à mutiendo but Vociferations as lowd as an Herald could proclaim them But God will never suffer the abuse of fiduciary Power which a good but an improvident King had past away to go unpunisht in themselves or in their Children Perditissimi est hominis fallere eum qui laesus non esset nisi credidisset Cic. Off. l. 2. The King deserv'd the better from them that reposed upon their duty both his own honour and the weal of all his Subjects The more publick the Person is the more he must betake him to trust many Nay none so private no Action that comes abroad so mean but you must believe in the fidelity of some As Russinus very well upon the Creed Nihil est quod in vitâ geri possit si non credulitas ante praecesserit The City of London came in for a great share to encourage the drawing of the Sword provided that the War came not near their Lines of Communication This City the Epitome of England marr'd all England as S. Hierom plays upon the River Pactolus that it hath golden Sands but unwholesom water Ditior caeno quà m fluento that the Mud was the best part of their River Ep. ad Mar. Alex. So muddy Wealth was the best thing that the Chuffs of the City had much else was but Dish-water except some few of the old store Sir H. Garrway Sir Ri. Gurney and their like who were poured into the Kennel for their fidelity But the worst of them all durst never have been so stout if the Parliament had not held up their Spirit in their wickedness And there was a Nation that shall not scape me that whistled to the Jades that plowed up the Furrows of our Land and gave them Provendore I mean the French to whom yet I will ascribe what Magius the Patavine doth Gens bellicosissima honorisque appetontissima It hath a stock of very noble Gentry but sick of two faults they abhor the Spaniards hate the English and wish the Confusion of both which may turn upon themselves They object how we assaulted them at Rhee but forget what we did for them at Amiens and Calis They remember King Charles his Navy at Rochel but take no notice of Queen Elizabeth who advanced Harry the Fourth to the Crown in spite of the Leaguers These kindled the Brands that set their Neighbours House on fire which lyes sleeping under the Ashes of our
sweetness of his Patience that he would have tarried with them and hop'd for better But moderate men did see no likelyhood And why should a gracious Prince imbrier himself any longer in Thorns and do no good but leave his Wooll behind him There are a sort of People in Gusman's Hospital that when a Friend stays long whom they had waited for look often out of the Window to spy him as if he would come the sooner for that impertinency Plautus hath drawn it up elegantly in his Stychus Si quem hominem expectant eum solent provisere Qui herclè illâ causâ nihilo citiùs veniet Would you have a wife King one of this ridiculous Hospitals And it was not wisdom only but heroick Magnanimity that he would not seem to deserve any thing by those Favours in passing their ill-fram'd Bills which he verily thought would be pluck't up by the Roots when the Day of the Lord should come to redeem us Matter so corrupt and the manner so compulsory must needs fall to the ground upon review in sober Times Quae in pace latae sunt leges bellum abrogat quae in Bello pax It is Livies Else cast it into this Answer His Majesty discern'd that he himself had marred both Houses and he would do them no more harm to concur with them in their Excess of Disobedience and Profaneness For what made them stretch themselves beyond their Power but the King's Act which gave them liberty to sit beyond lawful measure A Session sitting long grows sour and stale and is like to Theophrastus's Date-tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When it is young the Fruit it bears is without a stone in it but if it grow long a Date-stone is so hard that it will break good Teeth to crack it So this Convention being durable against Dissolution wax't very corrupt surly and tyrannical There were worthy Men among them some very learned in the Laws other Gentlemen well experienced in the Nature of the People of whom some were tired out and gone and much that remained was Lumber and Luggage tumbled together in a waste Room which brought up at last their final farewel and expulsion so generally applauded as Ballads and Pasquils did testifie Behold Sidonius his Judgment Lib. 1. Ep. 7. upon Arvandus a great Officer in his days Non eum aliquando cecidisse sed tamdiu stetisse plus miror qui primam praefecturam gubernavit cum maximâ popularitate sequentem cum maximâ populatione So our imperious Masters were flatter'd at first for Popularity and hated in the end for Depopulation And to put a signal Remark of Disgrace upon them it is not forgotten before they were carried out of their House like empty Casks with a Brewers sling 180. Some Pieces of Apology are patch't into this old Garment which in my Judgment make the Rent worse When things were gone so far out of Order it was a hard thing for a man to speak truth to himself Hear them howsoever for sometimes there is likelyhood in that which is a lye and sometimes Truth in that which is unlikely It is not amiss to alledge that the Authority of Parliaments hath been venerable from times of old but it is most certain that the Majesty Royal was evermore venerable For the King is God's Representative and the most part of their Patriots but the Representatives of the People But they would teach us That the Judgment of the whole Land speaks in the mouth of their Parliament I cannot be their Disciple in that I am sure their sense was not the sense of thousand thousands abroad and the Parliament indeed supplies our Political Capacity but they do not carry with them our Personal Wisdoms Says another Were we not frank of our Loyalty when we promis'd we would make his Majesty a great King This Spot at first made a shew of a good Card but to their shame I rejoyn there was a great disparity between the Promises and the Sequels Antisthenes so Laertius came to see Plato being sick just after his Physick had wrought Says Antisthenes I see your Choler in the Bason but not your Pride so every plain man might read the slattery of the Promise but not find the fraud They make him a great King It was God that made him a King and in that Title made him great Inde potestas illi unde spiritus Tertul. Apol. And by what sign did it appear they would make him great or what did they not do to make him a great Underling To give him Law to subject him to their Votes is the greatness of a Tympany which swells and kills The Sophistry in which they gloried most was extracted out of the Jesuits Learning That they were faithful to the Regal Office which remained in the two Houses albeit his departure but contrary to this man in his personal Errors and if they obey in his Kingly Capacity and Legal Commands against his Person they obey himself All this beside words is a subtle nothing For what is himself but his Person Shall we against all Logick make Authority the Subject and the Person enforcing it a have Accident It sounds very like the Parodox of Transubstantiation where◠〈◊〉 qualit â— of Bread and Wine are feigned to subsist without the Inherence of a substance With these Metaphysicks and Abstractions they were not Legal but Personal Traitors If an Undersheriff had arrested Harry Martin for Debt and pleaded that he did not imprison his Membership but his Martin ship would the Committee for Priviledges be sob'd off with that distinction Learnedly â—aravia de ob Christ p. 51. Eundem hominem partiri Jurisconsulti nesciunt ut idem homo sibi imperet parâ—at Whatsoever a man's relations be they are so conjoyned to the Suppositum that you cannot treat with him partly in honour partly in dishonour as in terms of opposition And sometime there is not so much as a notional Difference between Imperial and Personal Respect St. Paul instructs the Christians at Rome That every Soul should be subject to the higher Powers The higher Power under which they lived was the meer Power and Will of Caesar bridled in by no Law Pliny in his Panâ—g speaks it openly to Trajan Ipse te legibus subjecisri Caesar quas nemo Principi scripsit This was too much For Kings should not Rule without limitation of Laws as Claudian to Honortus Primus jussa capi tune observantior aequi Fit populus But if they fail who shall judge them but God To obey the King is God's Law to obey our Laws is the Ordinance of Man therefore the Bodies and Estates of the Subjects are obnoxious to the Common Laws and the King to nothing but his Conscience It is God only that avengeth the violation of Conscience it is above the Judgment of Men. But I return to St. Paul There was no distinction then in the Roman Empire between a Legal and Personal Capacity yet Let every Soul be
diligence it was registred among other Complaints when he could get no more The Instructions follow 1. Upon the Ninth of May 1645. Sir J. Owen Governour of Conway about Seven of the Clock in the Evening before the Night-guard was sent unto the Castle the possession whereof was placed by the King in the Archbishop of York and his Assigns upon great and valuable considerations by his gracious Letters and under his Majesty's Hand and Signet bearing date at Oxford August 1. 1643. did with bars of iron and armed men break the Locks and Doors and enter into the said Castle and seize upon the Place the Victuals Powder Arms and Ammunition laid in by the said Archbishop at his own charge without the least contribution from the King or the Country for the defence of the place and the Service of the King and the said Country 2. That being demanded by the said Archbishop to suffer two of the said Archbishop's men to be there with his rabble of Grooms and beggerly People to see the Goods of the Country preserv'd from filching and the Victuals and Ammunition from wasting and purloyning Sir John in a furious manner utterly refused it though all the Company cried upon him to do so for his own discharge yet would he not listen to any reason but promised the next day to suffer all things to be inventoried and the Lord Archbishop to take away what the would Sir John acknowledging all the Goods and Ammunition to be his 3. The next day he receded again from all this would not permit at the entreaty of the Bishop of St. Asaph his own Cousin-German any of the Archbishop's men to go and look to the Goods nor suffer his servants to fetch forth for his Grace's use who hath linger'd long under a great sickness and weakness either a little Wine to make him some Cawdles or so much as a little of his own stale Beer to make him Possets which all the Country conceive to be very barbarous 4. The said Sir John continueth rambling from place to place and detaineth still all the Goods of the Country laid up in this Castle as conceived to be owned by the Archbishop who was like to be responsal for them and had duly returned them in other years and threatens to seize upon the Plate and all things else of Value to his own use Than which no Rebel or Enemy could deal more outragiously 5. The Archbishop desires his Majesty would repossess him of the right of this Castle according to his Majesty's Grant made upon valuable consideration And that if his Majesty's pleasure be that Sir Jo. Owen or any other Man of more moderation and less precipitancy should be there he come under the Archbishop his Assignment as right requires and as Colonel Ellis and Mr. Chichely were content to do and did To the which the Archbishop as Colonel Ellis and Sir Will. Legg can witness was ever willing to give way 6. That howsoever the Archbishop may have all his Goods and Chattels all his Cannon Arms Ammunition Powder Provision in Beef Beer Wine Cheese Butter Oatmeal and Corn presently restored to him And what is wasted and made away may be answer'd to him by Sir John As also that all the Inhabitants of this and the Neighbour Countries may have their Goods presently out of the Castle before they be pilfered and imbezeled 7. Or otherwise that his Majesty and Prince Rupert his Lieutenant will graciously permit and suffer with their gracious favour the said Archbishop and Inhabitants of the Country to repair with their Complaints to the Assembly at Oxford and the Committee there against these and many other Outrages and Concussions of the said Sir Jo. Owen under colour of being Governour and Sheriff of this Town not warranted by any of his Commissions Every Line of this Remonstrance is just humble pathetical yet came to nothing The time was protracted from week to week and at last an Answer like to a Denial is given to Capt. Martin That it should be consider'd at more leisure One Hector a phrase at that time for a daring Russian had the ear of great ones sooner than five strict men that served the King unblameably before God and all his People But when the Messenger return'd to Wales and brought not the least satisfaction not a complemental Excuse to pacifie the Archbishop he said nothing lest he should have said too much But as Livy notes upon Fabius the Consul when Papirius Cursor was made Dictator over his head Apparuit insignem dolorem ingenti animo comprimi A great Spirit was chased with a great Indignity 204. Fifteen Months were run out after the Archbishop received this baffle to be postponed to Sir J. Owen the time is truly digited and a year of darkness and gloominess came upon this miserable Land Nasby Fight was struck the Lord Jacob Astly defeated the Western strong Holds reduced to Fairfax Chester surrendred Oxford it self begirt as Mindarus wrote to Sparta in his short Country Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that was good was undone Chester being possest by Col. Milton the Door into North-Wales he full of Animosity against the Royal Cause marcheth over Dee through Flint and Denbyshires unto the Town of Conway where the Conawians would as soon fight for a May-poll as for Sir J. Owen The amazed People turn to the Archbishop look upon his strong wisdom and grey hairs to stop the cruelty of the Conquerour and to lighten the yoke of their Misery And an aged Counseller is a Soveraign help at such a pinch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Long time of Life which robs us of all things else pays us the Principal again with Use in Knowledge and Wisdom The Archbishop's Grace calls some few to Counsel with him who agree to parly with Milton one that understood his own strength and their weakness The Welsh made some high Demands which were not heard patiently They perceived Milton's mind was at the Castle where the Archbishop's Wealth and of divers far and near was deposited which was ready to come every jot into the Colonels power whom they perceived to be rather haughty than covetous and they closed by insinuations with him relating how Sir J. Owen had surprized the Castle detained their Goods and insulted over them who had born Arms in the same Cause therefore they offer'd to joyn with him to put him into the Castle with condition that every Proprietary might obtain what he could prove by the Archbishops Inventory to belong to him and for the Overplus let it fall to the Colonels Mercy whose Consent the Archbishop's Art and fair Language drew on And not the least time being spent in delay the Soldiers entred the Castle both by Scalada and by forcing the Gates assisted by the Archbishop's Kindred and other Welch and Milton kept the Castle and kept his Word to let the Owners divide the Goods among themselves to which they laid
Horse for he sate in Scarlet and had power to take peace from the earth that men should kill one another and there was given to him a great sword to cut off the Lord 's Anointed his dear Servant Rev. 6.4 208. These with the Cubbs of the same Litter shed the Royal Blood upon a Scaffold openly for no Fault God knows but as Beda reports of K. Sigebert slain by two Ruffians who render'd this Cause for it That his Meekness had made many Malefactors and his Goodness had undone the Kingdom O unheard of Immanity above Mariana and all Jesuitical Positions Quorum sceleri non invenit ipsa Nomen á nullo posuit natura metallo Juven Sat. 13. O Sons and Daughters of Jerusalem droul out an Elegy for good King Josias Tristius lacrymis Simonidaeis Catullus O most facinorous Fact next above that of the Priests that to poyson the Emperor Henry the Seventh forbore not to poyson their own God in the Sacrament O ruthless Monsters that could stop their Ears at the Prayers of so many Nobles male and female that kneeled unto them to spare their Soveraign who would never have been moved if the People had wept Blood O day of wailment to all that are yet unborn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes Ep. 58. As apt as ever words did light in my way It was the day that they crucified Christ upon the Cross again O ye Kings of the Earth wherefore do ye not revenge it When Bessus kill'd Darius Justin puts you in mind Communis Regum omnium est causa lib. 13. every Monarch in Europe was wounded with that stroke If those Royal persons will not regard it to whom should the Crown of England make its moan Let the words of Tully be mark'd Act. 7. in Verrem Si in aliquâ desertissimâ solitudine ad saxa scopulos haec conqueri vellem tamen omnia muta inanima tantâ ac tam indignâ rerum atrocitate commoverentur But wherefore do we quarrel the remissness of Princes abroad Since there is not among our selves that hath the Courage of a gallant man to meet with Cromwel who jetts up and down and strike him to the Heart and expire upon the Murderer since the Law cannot punish him for so confess'd a Treason is not the Equity and Vigour of the Law in every one that can attach him Si quis eum qui plebiscito sacer sit occiderit homicida non est That 's Law with Budaeus lib. 2. Pand. fol. 28. Private Revenge is infamous and unlawful but he is actually condemn'd that hath killed the supreme Magistrate and every man is a Magistrate to cut off that Malefactor when there is no Magistrate or Bench of Justice sitting to try the Traytor But it is our Shame that every one wisheth that were done by another's Hand which he dare not for fear do himself Metellus Macedonicus was dragged to Prison by Catinius Labeo Tribune of the People Says Pliny lib. 7. c. 44. Indignationis dolori accedit inter tot Metellos tam sceleratam Catinii audaciam semper fuisse inultam The Cattive Cannibal Cromwel lives and is mighty cockers his Genius and abounds in Luxury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odyss 1. Here Cyclops drink Wine says Ulysses since you have eaten so much Man's-flesh Says the learned Dr. Duport Ironicè moraliter dictum ut somno vinoque conscientiam sopiat qui homicidium commisit But our Cyclops will never be able to cast his Conscience into a sound Sleep the Furies of Hell will often lash him and awake him Nero was the Murtherer of his Mother Agrippina and though afterward he drowned himself in all sort of Pleasure he could not avoid the Torment of heavy Remembrance So Sueton. par 24. Neque tamen sceleris conscientiam quanquam militum senatus populi acclamationibus confirmaretur aut statim aut unquam postea serre potuit Had Zimri Peace that slew his Master Richard the Third seemed to see many Devils haling him and tormenting him the night before he was slain in Bosworth Field Pol. Virg. Hist p. 25. The same continual Excruciation must be in the Breast of brazen-fac'd Bradshaw God will run him into Phrenzy with the sight of his Sins as our Acts and Monuments record That Judge Morgan fell mad after he had pass'd Sentence of Death upon Lady Jane and cried out Take away the Lady Jane from me and died in that Horror But whither am I carried Silence in such a Subject before me would condemn me and Writing enrageth me Our Criticks blame Euripides that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too long in his Bewailings I could not contract Laments into a less compass upon the most deplored end of a thrice-honour'd King a most pious Saint a patient and a crowned Martyr of whom our Prelate Williams preacheth in a Fast-Sermon p. 55. That he was as like Virtue it self as could be pattern'd in Flesh and Blood What Velleius writes of Aemilianus is too much for a man but scarce any one came nearer it than this man Qui nihil in vitâ nisi laude dignum aut fecit aut dixit aut sensit But I will challenge to King Martyr Charles what a Christian Historian writes of a very Christian King of ours Malmsb. lib. 1. c. 4. It is King Kenwolf to whom Beda dedicates his Ecclesiastical History Nihil quod livor dignè carperet unquam admisit And let his Death be bewailed his Memory be resresh'd with glorious Praises and immortal Fame to the Worlds end 209. The Thread of his Life so dismally cut off who was the Darling of all that were holy and fear'd God who was the Breath of our Nostrils as Naz. writ to Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You are more my Breath than the Air I breathe in This the heaviest Judgment of God that could befall us turn'd all England into such a Mourning as no Relation can describe or Fancy imagine Tears burst out Groanings bellowed forth Hearts melted like Wax few but forgat to eat their Bread Melancholy struck abundance dumb the saddest Event was that Frenzies seized on some and sudden Death on many It pierced the Archbishop's Heart with so sharp a point that Sorrow run him down the Hill with that violence that he never stay'd till he came to the bottom and died As soon as this Blow was given many conceived Despairs and are big with it yet that the Slavery under which the three Nations are fallen is irrecoverable till the last and terrible day of the Lord. In which doleful Sadness Lord Primate Usher I am witness of it continued to his End We English are observ'd to be too credulous of vain Prophecies such as are Father'd upon Merlin and no better Authors I remember an old Scotch man called Mony-penny if it were his right Name taught me this Rhime when I was Fourteen years old After Six is One And after One is None But Hey-ho and Weal-a-day To the day of
Dooms-day His Grace of York turn'd that Prophetick Conceipt into a Religious Practice Dr. Floyd a Religious Divine Preaching a Sermon at his Funeral extolled the most Reverend Father's Devotion That from the heavy time of the King's Death he rose every midnight out of his Bed and having nothing but his Shirt and Westcoat upon him kneeled on his bare Knees and pray'd earnestly and strongly one quarter of an hour before he went to his Rest again I will inform Dr. Floyd in two things which he knew not First He observ'd the season of Midnight because the Scriptures speak of Christ's coming to judge the Quick and the Dead at Midnight It is true according to the motion of the Sun and Stars it will be Day as well as Night in some Climate of the World but very like to be Night that is cloudy Darkness over all the Earth Secondly The matter of his Prayer was principally this Come Lord Jesus come quickly and put an end to these days of Sin and Misery So much I learnt from himself and so report it His days were consumed in Heaviness as his Nights in Mourning Facetiousness in which he was singular came no more out of his Lips he ceased from Discourse from Company as he could and nothing could hale him out of this Obscurity Such another Condoler for his King worthy Spottswood remembers Hist p. 106. That Will. Elphelston Bishop of Aberdeon hearing of the unfortunate Death of K. James the Fourth at Floyden was never afterward perceived to laugh nor willingly did he hear any thing that sounded to Mirth or Gladness Mourning for the Dead profits not yet a tender Nature is liberal of it and will pay more than it needs Says Sophocles If Tears would call the Dead again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they would be more valuable than Gold But a Bucket of them will not empty the dead Sea of Grief Wise Solon in Laertius taking on heavily for his Son's Death says his Companion to him Grief will do you no good And that makes me grieve the more says Solon because it will do me no good It is a very weak Passion and yet often too strong for Reason The Archbishop remained very silent in his dejected Heaviness and enquir'd after no News except that sometimes he would lift up his Head and ask what became of the King's Tryers Baanah and Rechab especially Cromwel and Bradshaw looking for some remarkable Judgment of God to come down upon them which they have escap'd for the greater tryal of good mens Patience And a Dream of Felicity is granted to them here that passing from Extremity to Extremity their Pain may be the sharper when they awake to Judgment Caesar writes like a Dictator of Reason de bel Gal. l. 1. Consnesse Deos immortales quo gravius homines ex commutatione rerum doleant quos pro scelere eorum ulcisci velint his secundiores interdum res diuturniorem impunitatem concedere Synesius hath said a little more Ep. 44. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that holds out long unpunish'd after a foul Fact is to be esteem'd most unhappy and so base that neither God nor Man regards him Let these Regicides be reprieved and each live with himself he cannot have worse Company than himself till he descend into Hell 210. Abite lemures pessimi I thrust these Infernal Goblins out of my way with the Censure they deserve and I resume the mournfful Archbishop who is now come to the end of his days and I of my Copious Labour Two Years and almost Two Months he consumed in a sequestred and forlorn Condition scarce any Witness could tell what he did all the while but that he prayed and sate at his Book all Day and much of the Night That little which he spake at Meals would afford great Essays of Wisdom and observable Predictions if it were remembred As Nazian said of St. Basil's common Talk Quae ab eo velut obiter fiebant multò praestantiora sunt Quà m ea in quibus alii elaborant But let all pass which he conceal'd to himself in the dark times I remember my Rule though I forget who taught it me though it be not according to Nature it is according to Honesty Vacuum potius relinquere quà m non verum There was an Idol in Lacedaemon Pausanias knew it well p. 195. called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they worship'd that were young to delay Old-age But no Times did precipitate Age and grey Hairs upon Men more than these wherein we live Says the Master of the Sentences among the Heathen Il. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men grow old apace that are in Misery Assuredly every month spent away the Archbishop's ruin'd Tabernacle now more than a year before And all Infirmities fly to Old-age as Offenders to an Altar Dr. Floud the Panegyrist at his Grace's Obsequies tells us That he had some Prognosticks of his Death not long before it and told it to some persons with Assurance and much Grief and sometimes when he had said Grace after Meal and was rising from the Table he would say I am ready for the LORD His Death came from a sudden Catarrh which caused a Squinancy by the inflammation of the interiour Muscles and a shortness of Breath follow'd which dissolved him in the space of twelve hours In which time the virtuous Lady Mostyn where he sojourn'd spake to him of his preparation for Heaven Says he Cousin I am already prepared and will be better prepared So he called for the Minister that was the nearest to read the Visitation of the Sick and twice over to him the greatest part whereof especially the Psalms he rehearsed distinctly himself and received Absolution When the Pangs of Death approach'd many other Prayers were read and short Sentences of Devotion repeated aloud in his Ears and those words being often said The Lord be merciful to thee the Lord receive thy Soul at that instant first he closed his Eyes with one Hand and then lifting up the other his Lips moved and recommending his Spirit to his Redeemer he expir'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes Ep. 57. He is gone before me whom I desir'd not to outlive A Squinancy whereof he dyed was the Death of the only Pope that was born in England Hadrian the Fourth But the whole Conflux of the Disease that took him away was in all circumstances the same with Padre-Paulo's the Servite as the Author of his Life sets it down that his Feet could receive no warmth the same Symptom that laid hold of this Prelate and that a Catarrh destroyed him There are many Diseases dangerous and mortal this is often cured by the launce of a sorry Chyrurgion of whom there was none in that place Ego timeam terres trementes quem crassior saliva suffocat Sen. de Nat. l. 6. c. 28. The day of his farewel out of this Life was upon the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin which was his Birth-day the 25th of March 1650.